Skip to main content

Pasta Salad

Welcome back to Chez Chefpo! 
Today, we have a wonderful pasta salad. This works great chilled or not, and accompanies nicely with stronger flavors. This recipe was actually supposed to be a replication of La Madeleine's Pasta Salad, but after making it several times, we felt that it has deviated enough from it since it really doesn't taste quite the same. However, it's still got the same idea: a simple, light dish that can stand on its own or be with a friend.

Pasta Salad


Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

  • 8 ounces pasta (preferably bowties)
  • 4 tablespoons pesto
  • 2 tablespoons Caesar dressing
  • 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
  • 4 Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup green onion, parsley, or spinach, chopped
  • 1/4 cup (or about 1 ounce) olives, chopped

Directions:

  1. Cook the pasta.
  2. Mix all the ingredients and combine with the pasta.
  3. Chill and serve.
It's pretty easy, and you can make a lot of it at once. It also works with anything: chicken, steak, shrimp, whatever! 
With steak and some veggies!
With chicken cordon bleu and cheesecake!

As a side note, the pesto to Caesar to Parmesan ratio is 2:1:1 in the recipe, but there are some variations that are 1:1:1 for a lesser pesto taste. You can experiment with this to maybe make it closer to the La Madeleine flavor! Or just do it however you like it!

-Chefpo

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fig Crème Fraîche Cake

Welcome back!  Today, we have a cake featuring an interesting fruit: the fig! Figs are typically eaten dried or in some processed form because they don't stay fresh for long, so making this dish out of fresh figs was quite nice. Once completed, the fig flavor blends in very well with the rest of the cake and creates a dessert that is flavorful but not overly rich. Fig Crème Fraîche Cake Makes a 9" cake Ingredients: 1/2 pound figs, quartered (if you have big figs, maybe 6-8 slices) 120 grams cake flour 50 grams almond flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 50 grams sugar 60 grams honey 120 grams crème fraîche 3 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier 1/2 cup melted butter Directions: In a bowl, sift in the dry ingredients (cake flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt). Mix this together. In another bowl, put in the sugar, honey, and crème fraîche, and mix them together.  One add a time, add the eggs and mix thoroughly. Add in the vanilla ...

Brownie Cheesecake

Welcome back to Chez Chefpo!  Today, we have a delicious treat that combines two wonderful desserts into one! If you like brownies and cheesecake, you're going to like this too, as the two flavors really balance and complement each other. It also goes well with some fresh fruit and is a good final course of a meal. (In fact, you got a sneak peek at it in our Pasta Salad recipe!) Brownie Cheesecake Makes a 9" round pan Ingredients: Brownie: 6 ounces dark chocolate 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter 2 tablespoons brown sugar 6 tablespoons sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 75 grams cake flour 1 tablespoon cocoa powder 1 teaspoon espresso powder 1/2 teaspoon salt Chocolate chips (optional) Cheesecake: 8 ounces ricotta cheese 8 ounces cream cheese 4 ounces plain greek yogurt 2 eggs 50 grams sugar 1/4 cups dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, blueberries) soaked in rum/brandy/Grand Marnier Lemon zest (optional) In place of the ricotta cheese, you could use another 8 ounces of c...

Pearl Meatballs

Welcome back!  Today, we have a unique recipe that comes from Central China: Pearl Meatballs! The name is quite interesting but makes sense: they're meatballs, but the translucence of the sticky rice that coats the meatball mirrors the luster of a pearl. It's often served on special occasions, like Lunar New Year, where everyone gathers for a feast and can enjoy this delicious dish. Plus, it's not even that difficult to make! Pearl Meatballs Makes about 30 meatballs Ingredients: For the meatballs: 1/2 pound ground pork 1/4 pound shrimp 80 grams (about 1/2 can) water chestnuts, finely chopped 2 tablespoons green onion, finely chopped 1/2 teaspoon ginger, minced 1 teaspoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon rice wine 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1/4 teaspoon white pepper 1/2 egg white For the rice: 1 cup glutinous (sticky) rice Directions: Rinse the glutinous rice and soak in water for 2 hours. In a bowl, place all the ingredients for the meatballs and mix until even. The mixture...