During the summer, there are few things I want to eat more regularly than pasta salad. It’s hearty without being heavy, easy to eat right out of the fridge when it’s too hot to cook, and holds up well as leftovers for days. But the thing I appreciate most about pasta salad is that it is the original no-recipe recipe. In fact, I would argue that pasta salad always turns out best when there’s no recipe involved.
Pasta salad is the kind of dish intended for cleaning out your refrigerator. After you boil your preferred shape of noodles — I usually use rotini, or if I’m feeling very fancy, fusilli bucati corti — the possibilities from there are endless. First, I scour the veggie drawer for anything that looks like it needs to be used immediately. I usually have sweet peppers, maybe some corn or carrots and celery around, and those all get chopped into small pieces and stirred into the warm pasta. Literally any vegetable you have in your crisper will be good for pasta salad, but cutting it into small, bite-sized pieces is essential for ensuring that it gets evenly distributed throughout the dish. If you find any errant herbs in there, grab those too.
From there, I look for something pickle-y, maybe a jar of salt-brined Persian cucumbers or some crunchy banana peppers. Half a jar of (drained) capers will also work, as will a simple dollop of pickle relish. Then it’s time to raid the cheese drawer. Ideally I’ll have a few odds ends of cheese, maybe some sharp cheddar and Parmesan, that can be finely diced or shredded and tossed into the bowl. If you insist on protein in a pasta salad, shred up the remnants of that rotisserie chicken you bought a few days ago, or chop up a few hard boiled eggs.
Now, you can start digging around in the pantry. Throw in some crispy onions, or oil-marinated artichoke hearts. Maybe you’ve got a tin of nice anchovies lying around, or a random handful of nuts just dying to be used. Even if you think it sounds weird, pasta salad is a solid vehicle for trying new food combinations. Some won’t work, but more often than not, you’re going to find yourself surprised by how much you like some of these random new pairings.
The dressing can be as complicated or as simple as you like. You could easily make your own vinaigrette in the food processor with those errant herbs, some balsamic or red wine vinegar, and decent olive oil, or simply stir together a little salt and oil with some brine from the pickle-y option you chose. A bit of mayonnaise and mustard (especially a grainy or spicy variety) stirred together makes for a surprisingly solid pasta salad dressing, especially if you grate in a clove or two of fresh garlic. Don’t be afraid to throw it back to the pasta salads of your ’90s childhood with a bottle of Italian dressing, either — that’s a classic for a reason, and it hits every single time.
Even if it seems like the ingredients that you choose don’t quite “go together,” everything mingles and mellows once the salad is dressed. The whole point here is to not over-complicate your pasta salad, and just eat things you like without feeling the need to strictly adhere to someone else’s recipe. The only problem with this approach is that you’re going to accidentally make a truly perfect pasta salad from time to time, and the lack of recipe might make it hard to replicate in the future. (That said, there is of course nothing stopping you from writing down your favorite combos in a notebook and coming back to them when the craving for pasta salad strikes.)
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