Ina Garten’s Easy Trick for Palms Down the Finest Pasta Salad Ever

Bear in mind just a few years in the past when the complete world (together with me, reluctantly) was making the viral Tomato Feta Pasta? It was so common that grocery shops worldwide offered out of feta cheese!

My sizzling take is that the dish, whereas eye-catching on the ‘gram, was not superb. To me, feta is ideal in its pure state, ideally cubed or crumbled. It’s not meant to soften right into a sauce.

The flavour profile of the recipe, nevertheless, made loads of sense. Tomatoes and feta go hand in hand, however on the subject of pairing them with pasta, they’re much higher suited to a chilly salad, IMHO.

Ina Garten has recognized this to be true for a very long time. Her recipe for Tomato Feta Pasta Salad has been round since 2012, again when Instagram was nonetheless a photo-sharing app (keep in mind that?!). This recipe units the bar for pasta salad fairly excessive.

How To Make Ina’s Tomato Feta Pasta Salad

First, Ina’s mix-in-to-pasta ratio is excessive. Whereas most pasta salad recipes name for a full pound of pasta, this recipe calls for under eight ounces. This makes it really feel extra like a salad than a bowl of chilly pasta with some veggies and cheese. I like to make use of tricolor fusilli, however any quick pasta form will do. 

Now, for the mix-ins! The recipe requires a pound of tomatoes, so that they should be flavorful. In the summertime, I take advantage of tomatoes on the vine. If tomatoes should not at their peak, I take advantage of cherry tomatoes which are typically extra persistently flavorful out of season. If I’m making this recipe forward, I stir within the tomatoes proper earlier than I serve it in order that they don’t get mushy or mealy. 

For the feta, attain for the good things that comes packed in brine, which can turn out to be useful later! Whereas I firmly consider that there is no such thing as a such factor as an excessive amount of cheese, a full pound is perhaps an excessive amount of for some. You can scale this right down to eight ounces if it really works higher in your price range and style.

Now, the enjoyable stuff! The recipe will get a burst of briny umami taste from sundried tomatoes and Kalamata olives. They add pops of saltiness that make this salad extremely arduous to cease consuming.

Final however not least, there’s the dressing. That is the place issues begin to get attention-grabbing. The primary few instances I made this dish, I made the dressing as written and it is just about excellent. A mix of purple wine vinegar, capers, sundried tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil brings the best stability of brightness and sweetness to the dish.

How I Tweak Ina’s Pasta Salad Recipe

In accordance with the recipe, when you’ve mixed your pasta, mix-ins, and dressing, you end it with a beneficiant quantity of parsley and grated Parmesan. Whereas this works nicely, I’ve began mixing my parsley and parmesan with the opposite dressing substances to create a cross between a pesto and a tapenade.

To assist it mix, I additionally add a splash of feta brine and pasta cooking water, which creates a beautiful consistency that completely coats the pasta. This retains the salad more energizing within the fridge and in addition prevents the dressing from pooling within the backside of the blending bowl because it sits. 

One factor to notice: this dish incorporates loads of very salty substances. To stop over-seasoning, I take advantage of barely much less salt to prepare dinner the pasta than I usually would. Additionally, I maintain off on including additional salt to the dressing till I style the whole lot blended collectively.

Should you discover the salad too salty, add a bit of contemporary lemon juice to tone issues down. Or add one thing impartial in taste like crisp cucumbers and even peppery child arugula to carry stability and a little bit of inexperienced.