Pasta Salad

SMART SUBSTITUTION Try a mix of yogurt and lemon juice for a tart, creamy pasta sauce without a lot of fat. This satisfying pasta salad, made with whole-wheat penne, makes a great summer supper; pack any leftovers for a workday lunch.

WHY THEY’RE LIGHT Keep summer barbecue sides light and fresh: This no-fuss pasta salad is dressed simply with garlic oil and fresh herbs. Vegetables cooked on the grill need no adornment other than a light coat of olive oil. If using wooden skewers to grill onions, soak the skewers in water for thirty minutes before grilling.

An Italian brunch wouldn’t be complete without a pasta dish. Campanelle pasta is named for the church bells it resembles, and the nooks and crannies are great for trapping sauce, making every bite delicious. If you can’t find campanelle, any small shaped pasta will do. There are lots of bold flavors in this pasta salad, the base of which is canned tuna. Although it’s definitely more caloric, tuna packed in olive oil rather than water gives the salad a much fuller, richer flavor.

Cold noodles, almost in salad form, with vegetables, spice, and meat. Perfectly fine with regular pasta, it is prettier and better with the fresh egg noodles now sold at many supermarkets and every Chinese market.

GINA Salad helps lighten the fare, and these green beans with cheese tortellini are a nice change from the traditional tossed salad. I am a big salad-eater, and there are a lot of women like me out there. Honey, we’re trying to stay as “fabulous” as we can, eating all those greens. We just have to mix it up a bit so we don’t get bored!

This is one of my favorite salads in the whole book, despite what anyone says about the color. Soba noodles, which are made from buckwheat, are a kind of gray-brown color, so everyone thinks the salad looks a little bizarre or even unappetizing—until they try it and realize that it’s a delicious twist on pasta salad. The lime juice and fresh veggies make it refreshing and light.

You can serve this salad as a side dish, but it’s so packed with stuff that it can easily be a meal. I love this kind of dish because I can have it as a meal one day and then snack on the leftovers for a few days (right out of the container, of course).

Macaroni salad is all over the South. This is our refreshing Italian-inspired take on the usual mayonnaise-based kind. You can toss in leftover grilled chicken for a main-course salad. Kids tend to love macaroni, so we leave out the herbs when we know we’re feeding someone who isn’t a fan of “green bits.” Try it next time you serve up Chicken Nuggets with Honey-Lemon Dipping Sauce (page 159) or our Saucy Tilapia with Tomatoes and Capers (page 56).

This Italian-inspired salad uses fresh cheese tortellini as its base. (You can find fresh tortellini in the refrigerated section of your local supermarket.) It’s a fun variation on the usual pasta salad suspects. Plus, it’s superconvenient because you can fix it up to a day ahead and serve it straight from the fridge. We love the way tortellini and mozzarella taste when they’ve been marinating in Italian seasonings and how nice the colors of the broccoli, tomatoes, and olives look when they are served together. That’s why we call this salad tricolore (Italian for “three colors”)!

Orzo, a type of pasta shaped like flat grains of rice, is perfect for use in salads because it holds its shape and texture so beautifully. For this heart-healthy meal in a bowl, Jamie was inspired to use Italian flavors like fresh basil, sun-dried tomatoes, and olives, plus Brooke’s all-time favorite salad ingredient, pine nuts.

This pasta salad is one of Jamie’s “greatest hits” meals. It’s perfect for leftover grilled or store-bought rotisserie chicken, and it’s got everything we could want Jack to eat in it: pasta, chicken, and veggies. A little ranch dressing makes the salad nice and creamy and helps bring all the ingredients together.

Here is a good way to use up leftover chicken that makes a full, satisfying meal.

Full of colorful, crunchy vegetables and bursting with flavor, this looks really pretty on a buffet table. By the time I was in middle school, I knew that rotini and vegetables in the kitchen was the sign that we were headed to a potluck soon. This was and is my mom’s go-to recipe for PTA meetings, school plays, recitals, and baby and bridal showers.

This light summery riff on an Italian classic, pasta e fagioli, is as basic as it is tasty. I love the temperature contrast of hot pasta and beans with cool tomato salad, though you can also serve this peasant dish cold as a pasta salad.

For a richer dressing, add half a cup of coconut milk and a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter to the dressing.

This pleasant pasta salad is even tastier the second day. Enjoy it as an entrée for six or a side dish for twelve.

The lemon and dill vinaigrette is a wonderful complement to the flavors of this salad.

Talk about flexible, this chicken is a cheerleader. Yes, it’s equally good steaming hot or icebox cold. Eat this dish four seasons of the year, hot or not, indoors or out. It’s G-R-E-A-T . . . great!

This can be eaten hot or at room temperature, like a pasta salad. The tagliatelle is usually cooked in the same water as the lentils, which gives the pasta a pleasant earthy color and flavor, but you can also boil them separately.

For more information on baked tofu, see page 136. I’d like to see this superb product go mainstream! See the menu with Cold Fresh Tomato Soup (page 17). This would also be just as good served with Fresh Tomato and Corn Soup (page 18).

Broccoli is one of the most harmonious additions to pasta salad. Try this in the menu with Pizza Margherita (page 154).