As much as I love to cook, even I can get into a food rut. Thankfully, when I do, I know recipes like this Sundried Tomato Pasta Salad can help make meal prep and planning a little easier.
A few years ago, I was deep into the cycle of spaghetti/peanut butter sandwich/cereal for almost every meal at home. Life was busy and trying to think about breakfast, lunch, and dinner just felt like too big of a task. When I start feeling overwhelmed, I usually pull out the closest notebook and work out a plan I feel like I can follow. I give myself some rules or guidelines, which helps make the decision making just a little simpler. To get out of my boring meal rut, one of my rules for my new meal plan was that each week, I would make a cold grain or pasta salad. It was a perfect lunch to take with me or grab from the fridge for a quick at-home option.
I dearly love tomatoes and living in Latin America, they are pretty much in season year round. For me, there are a fridge staple and make there way into lunches and dinners on a near-daily basis. This pasta salad is overflowing with juicy, fresh tomatoes and sweet, sundried tomatoes. This Sun-dried Tomato Pasta Salad is inspired by a favorite of my mom’s from a deli in Dallas. Every time we visit, we stop by on our way out of town for sandwiches and this pasta salad. Add in a brownie and some salt and vinegar chips and you’ve got the best road trip picnic! After several requests for a recipe for that pasta salad, this is the result.
This pasta salad is ideal for those summer months when the tomatoes are ripe and juicy and you want something cool and refreshing. There are few things I enjoy LESS than heating up the oven when its approaching 100 degrees outside. I pretty much limit myself to cold food, things I can grill, or crockpot meals when it is scorching hot out. Although this does require a little heat on the stovetop to boil your pasta, I promise it won’t turn your entire kitchen into a sauna.
With less than 10 ingredients, this is the perfect meal prep salad or summer cookout side dish. The bright green of the spinach and basil are gorgeous with the red tomatoes.
To slice your basil and spinach into perfect little ribbons, you can try stacking a few leaves on top of one another. Roll them up like a cigar, then slice the roll into thin strips. As the slices unroll, you will be left with beautiful little ribbons of green! You can try stacking the sundried tomatoes on top of one another, too, to get more even slices.
For seeding your tomatoes, simply cut your tomatoes longways into 4 quarters. Gently using your fingers, slide the seeds and liquid out of the tomato’s flesh and discard. Slice each quarter in half again. Stack your tomato strips and them slice horizontally to get perfectly size cubes. Seeding tomatoes in recipes that use raw tomatoes can prevent the dish from becoming watery due to too much liquid. In Cook foods, seeding the tomatoes can keep your dish from becoming bitter, as the seeds tend to become bitter when cooked.
When cooking your pasta, you want to make sure that your water is heavily salted. By that I mean a handful or about 1 tablespoon of salt per quart of water. We want ocean water level of salty. You may notice that the recipe does not call for a specific amount of salt. That is because some of you will heavily salt the water and some of you may add a pinch. Thats ok. You are forgiven. But, I don’t want to give anyone a stroke from too much salt, so I’m leaving that up to you. The brand of your sundried tomatoes may also vary in saltiness, so add your tomatoes and oil, then give your pasta salad a try before adding any extra salt. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! As for cooking the pasta, you will want to pull it off the heat and rinse under cool water for a few seconds BEFORE it is fully cooked. That is al dente. Your box will probably have instructions. That is because we are not about mushy food here. Raise your hand if you’ve had pasta salad will noodles that were falling apart and mushy. We want to avoid that. Your pasta will absort all that oil and vinegar goodness and after sitting for just a few minutes, will be perfect. Cross my heart.
So if you are wanting to be the star of the next cookout with the pasta salad that makes everyone go WOW, here is what you will need….
Sundried Tomato Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb rotini pasta
- 1 cup sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil
- 3 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
- 1 cup baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 1 cup parmesan cheese, finely shredded
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 4 tbsp oil from the sundried tomatoes
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Boil pasta in heavily salted water according to package directions until al dente, or about 1 minute from being fully cooked.
- Drain pasta and rinse under cool water to stop it from continuing to cook.
- While the pasta is boiling, prep your sundried tomatoes, tomatoes, spinach, parmesan, garlic and basil.
- To make the dressing, in a large mixing bowl, add parmesan, garlic, basil, oregano, vinegars and oil, stirring to combine. Toss the tomatoes, sundried tomatoes and spinach with the dressing.
- Add the pasta to the dressing, tomatoes, and spinach. Gently toss to thoroughly coat the pasta with the dressing and distribute the tomatoes and spinach. Salt to taste.
- Let sit at least 30 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Like any pasta salad, this one just gets better with time. It is best served the day after it is made. Store in the refrigerator up to 5 days.
- The saltiness of the pasta salad will depend on how much you salt your pasta water and your brand of sun-dried tomatoes. I suggest tasting your pasta salad after it has marinated for 30 minutes before adding additional salt.
- Cooking your pasta to al dente is key to keeping your noodles from falling apart! It also lets them soak up more of the flavor.
- Because this pasta salad has no eggs or mayonaise, it is perfect for a picnic without having to worry about refrigeration for a few hours. Enjoy!