Welcome to summer! This “pasta salad” is a bit different from your traditional pasta salads. I almost always prefer a long noodle (like spaghetti, linguine, bucatini), over your traditional pasta salad noodle. This is an easy dish to prepare ahead of time and is a go-to every summer for me when I need a quick and healthy lunch in between seeing clients. It’s filling, great at room temperature, and the only thing that requires cooking are the noodles. I mean, does anyone else dread using their oven when it’s 100+ degrees out?
Feel free to get creative and use any of your favorite oils and vinegars to dress and season this dish. In the summer, I love to make a simple vinaigrette using Enzo’s Clementine Olive Oil and rice wine vinegar. Depending on whether I’m serving this for a group to be eaten right away or I’m making it ahead of time to pack for a couple of days of lunches at work, I’ll add or subtract certain ingredients depending on what holds up well. Use whatever you’d like! Summer is great because you can add arugula, pea shoots, etc. If you’re in a pinch and don’t want to buy a whole bundle of ingredients that you know you’ll only use a bit of, hit up your local grocery store that has an awesome salad bar spread. Grab a carton and grab a scoop of tomatoes, peas, arugula, corn, cheese, whatever floats your boat.
Our three year old Preston helped out with this dish. He loved to ribbon the zucchini and yellow squash, under close observation of course!
-Jenny
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 10 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 1/4 lb uncooked whole-grain spaghetti
- 1 small zucchini peeled into ribbons
- 1 small yellow squash peeled into ribbons
- 1/2 lb seasonal and colorful cherry and/or grape tomatoes halved
- 1/4 small red onion finely diced
- 1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (I used Enzo’s clementine olive oil
- 1 tablespoons champagne or rice wine vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese or any cheese/no cheese
Ingredients
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- Cook pasta according to package directions, make sure to season water with salt
- While the pasta cooks, shave zucchini and squash into thin ribbons using a vegetable peeler; place in a large bowl and add tomatoes.
- Wisk vinegar to oil to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Add cooked and slightly cooled pasta to vegetables, tossing gently with vinaigrette to combine. Top with cheese and serve.
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