Pasta Salad… Italian Salad

Red Pasta in Red sauce, White Pasta in White sauce, Green Pasta in Pesto sauce… But what about Pasta without any sauce? Yes, Pasta salad, which is so amazing, without any baggage of calories which the sauce can bring. Colorful, Beautiful to look at, Presentable, Healthy, Delicious, Quick to make, Easy, Ideal for Summers. Pasta Salad is a no-fuss salad. Just boil Pasta, add veggies of your choice, some Vinaigrette and that’s it. Vinaigrette lends mild tanginess to the otherwise bland pasta. Pasta Salad is loaded with veggies. It is one salad where you have more veggies than the main ingredient, that is, Pasta and still, everybody loves it. In a way, this is like a vegetable salad to which some Pasta has been added. In fact, It is a very good way to feed veggies to your children. You can also pack this in your little one’s lunch box. It can be made exotic by adding veggies like bell peppers, Zucchini, Broccoli, Jalapenos, Olives etc. Add anything and everything to Boiled Pasta. Let’s see how to make this beautiful salad… I have added Bell Peppers, Broccoli, Zucchini, Cucumber, Tomatoes, Baby Corns, Carrots. You can add all these or any of these or any other like Olives, Jalapenos, Capsicum, Corns etc. Also, I have cut long strips of the veggies to make them compatible with my Penne shaped Pasta. Pasta comes in innumerable shapes – tubular, fan shape, spiral, noodle, seashell, strip and so on. Some of the popular names are Penne, Spaghetti, Conchiglie and Orecchiette, Fusilli, Lasagna, etc. The compatibility of each is different with different kinds of food and it is with some level of experience of preparing pasta dishes, that you can choose the right shape or type for your pasta dish. Till then fall back on a recipe. A pasta dish normally requires some kind of sauce to be added. These could be cream based or tomato based or vinaigrette. With Salads, a spiral or fan or tubular shapes work well. The veggies can be chopped accordingl