Party 911 - Pasta Salad To The Rescue
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Oh no! The potluck's tonight! Sound familiar? I've been there a few times myself. There I am, with about an hour to get to the potluck, and no idea what I'm going to bring. What to do, what to do.
You are in panic mode so all you can think of is: 1) Just don't go. 2) Go empty handed and feel like a schmuck. 3) Bring one of your own bowls to the deli and ask them to fill it up so you can pass it off as your own.
Since none of those options really appeal to you, I think I have a solution; pasta salad! By keeping a few ingredients on hand at all times, you can easily throw together a tasty treat in virtually minutes. Starting with pasta and salad dressing, you can build yourself a dish that will suit any potluck. Let's get started.
Standard pastas like penne, shell, rotini, and even macaroni noodles will make a fine pasta salad once you add your personal touch. If you have a lot of partially full boxes of different pastas, just mix them together. Be sure to cook similarly sized pastas together. If you're cooking penne with angel hair pasta, you'll run into trouble because the cooking time is different. You would want to cook these types of pasta in separate pots.
Don't fret too much about the dressing. If you have Italian or Ranch Style dressing on hand, you have it handled. You can actually mix the two together so you get a nice oily finish to the pasta salad as well as the creamy texture. If you're ambitious you can whisk together a few ingredients like oil, white wine vinegar, honey, mustard, or whatever flavors you like together. Throw in some herbs and you're done.
Now it's time to cook the pasta. Decide on the dressing you're using while the pasta cooks. Then, drain the pasta and put it into a large serving bowl. Before the pasta cools off, pour on the dressing. You want to do this while the pasta is warm so it absorbs all the flavor. Be careful not to add too much dressing right away. You can add more as you go but you can't take it out.
Time to get creative. Check your pantry and fridge for tasty ingredients like frozen peas, canned chickpeas, fresh tomatoes, broccoli, celery, mushrooms, cheese, olives, or whatever sounds good to you. Grab that bag of almonds and chop them up, too. How about those few slices of pepperoni? Sounds good to me.
Toss in whatever you can find. If you have a little leftover chicken or tuna, throw it in there. If you're not sure if something will taste good, take a bit of the pasta salad that you have so far out of the big bowl and put it in a small bowl, then add the next ingredient and taste. When you're done, cover the bowl and you're ready to roll!
The next time you are invited to a potluck and you stand there staring into the pantry and refrigerator, don't panic. There's only one thing you have to remember: Pasta Salad to the rescue!
Article Source: Articlelogy.com
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