The 5 most common mistakes in a pasta salad
Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the gourmands at online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat it and what to cook. This time our cheffies serve you: The 5 most common mistakes when making a pasta salad.
Did you also get served a somewhat gross, dull, wet pasta salad a bit too often last summer and are you now thinking: I will take revenge with a delicious pasta salad? Great. Let’s go. These five mistakes will be a thing of the past.
It’s not complicated to make a pasta salad that is good in taste, texture, and content. If you never make the mistakes below again, you can always bring the pasta salad from now on. Which is fine, because practice makes perfect in the kitchen too.
MISTAKE 1: USING THE WRONG PASTA
There is an ideal destination for fresh pasta (namely steaming hot on your plate with a splash of brown butter and crispy fried sage leaves, for example, and then in your belly), and pasta salad is not that place. Buried under a rich cold dressing or sauce, not much remains of how delicate fresh pasta is (and tastes). Also good to know: not every shape is at its best here. Avoid large tunnel shapes, because when you’re looking for your carefully fried bacon bits later: they are probably stuck inside the giant macaroni. Use dried pasta in shapes that are small enough to stab with your fork in one go. Orecchiette are fun and you can still distinguish all the ingredients well, even if they lie a bit in the ‘ears’.
MISTAKE 2: ONLY SPRINKLING SALT ONCE
Many people are afraid to use too much salt because the dressing is often ‘heavy’ and usually salty ingredients like chorizo, salami, fried halloumi (do it!) or bacon bits are added, but if your base tastes like nothing, it will also be nothing. Don’t be afraid to prepare the individual components with salt. Cook the pasta in salted water, season the vegetables with salt and pepper before they go into the bowl, and make sure the dressing is well seasoned. Also sprinkle a little salt and plenty of pepper when you’re doing the final mix.
MISTAKE 3: THROWING IN TOO MANY RAW INGREDIENTS
Yes, you definitely want a crunchy element in there, but there shouldn’t be half heads of raw cauliflower on top of carrots, bell peppers, and fennel. You can blanch broccoli florets briefly and let them cool, and chop the raw vegetables (they really don’t have to be three types) small. Also very tasty: homemade pickles or vegetables like artichoke hearts or grilled peppers in oil from a jar.
MISTAKE 4: USING TOO LITTLE OR TOO MUCH DRESSING
A dressing based on mayo can be nice, but you don’t want those rancid blobs when the pasta sits for a while. Dry pasta salad is also not pleasant to eat. Make sure to mix three-quarters of the dressing in when the mixture is still going to sit in the fridge for a while, so a large part of the substance and flavor is already absorbed. Then mix in the rest spoon by spoon just before serving, but stop before it gets too soggy.
MISTAKE 5: FORGETTING TO SEASON AT THE END
There is hardly any dish that leaves a professional kitchen without a pinch of pepper and salt being added just before it reaches the hands of the serving staff. Especially with cold dishes, it can be difficult to distinguish flavors directly, which is why it’s better to be safe than sorry by seasoning at the end with salt and pepper. And always taste before and after you do this. Then a squeeze of lemon juice over it for that fresh zing and it’s ready. You win in the pasta salad camp!
