Bethie's Kitchen: Quick & Easy Pasta Salad

It's a gorgeous day here! The sun is shinning, it's mild, and the sky is blue and cloudless! Not bad for Windsor in February! It reminds me that spring and summer are coming and that soon I can enjoy picnics, BBQs and summer nights outside! But hey, who ever said you can't enjoy summertime favorites in the winter? So today for lunch I am making quick pasta salad using my Grandma's recipe.

My husband comes home for lunch everyday and usually just reheats leftover or has a sandwich. So today I thought I'd surprise him with a mini "picnic" in February. Also, my sister has been begging me to make this for her and she had a big test at college this morning so I thought she could use special surprise lunch!

I love this pasta salad recipe for many reasons. One, it's my Grandma's. Two, it's fast and easy. Three, it's versatile. I use the same dressing recipe for pasta salad, potato salad, chicken salad and egg salad. Today we are doing pasta.

So, first things first. Cook the pasta. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta.

Usually I use penne for this but today I used those curly noodles.

Curly Pasta

Once the pasta has cooked, you need to cool it down and stop the cooking process. For this I use an ice bath. I strain the pasta, run my pot under cold water to cool it off, add cold water and ice and then throw my pasta back in. While my pasta is cooling, I can made the dressing.

Pasta cooling in an ice bath

The ingredients for the dressing are:

L-R:  Dijon mustard, paprika, yellow mustard, Lowry's seasonging salt, mayo, garlic powder, sea salt, onion powder, pepper

First I add to generous tablespoons of mayo, a quirt of yellow mustard and a squirt of dijon mustard. Then I mix. The mustard to just slightly change the color of the mayo.

Mayo and Mustard

Then I season with fresh ground sea salt and pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, a dash of Lowry's seasoning salt, and a dash of paprika.

Then I add my cooled pasta, mix and serve! This whole process took me about 20 minutes and I have a homemade salad for lunchtime!

You can also make this ahead of time and chill it in the fridge. Usually if I make this for a crowd, I do it the day before and let sit in the fridge. I also add veggies such as celery and green onion or whatever you happen to like.


Off to have lunch with my hubby!

~Bethie