Yet another recipe that I ended up doing my own thing. I got this recipe from another blog that I really enjoy. This is a great pasta salad that is very fresh and light - fantastic for summer. Here we go!
Ingredients
1/4 cup Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
1/3 cup Minced Shallots
2 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
1 Garlic Clove, minced
1/2 tsp Finely Grated Lemon Zest (or more to taste)
Salt and Pepper (to taste)
1 cup Uncooked Orzo
1/2 cup Finely Diced Yellow Pepper
1/2 cup Finely Diced Seedless Cucumber
Grated Parmesan Cheese - whatever makes you feel good
3 Tbsp Minced fresh Mint Leaves
Splash-ish Balsamic Vinegar
Random Thought: Isn't funny how sometimes recipes specify "to taste"? Isn't everything really "to taste". I mean, if I don't like an ingredient, I'm not putting it in, because of my "to taste", or I might add something, as I did here, "to taste".
Moving on...
Cook your orzo. I probably did more than a cup because I never believe that uncooked pasta yields more cooked pasta. It gets me every time. Seriously. Maybe I'll learn eventually.
Stir together olive oil, garlic, shallots, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt and pepper. Make sure it tastes all right. For whatever reason, I couldn't stand the thought of putting this cold sauce on a dish I wanted to serve hot, so I sauteed it for awhile. Did it make a difference. I have absolutely no idea. But it felt better...? (When you figure out what that means, can you let me know...good grief).
Stir everything together once the pasta is is cooked. When I was finished with this, I tasted it and thought it needed something, so I added Balsamic Vinegar. I really like this taste, so you should not go by what I put in it, but do the whole "to taste" thing if you feel so inclined. Voila! Great Side salad to go with your meals. It was suggested to put it with roasted chicken. Seeing as we had no roasted chicken, or anything else but leftovers, Mike ate that and whatever he could find and still enjoyed it. There you go.
No comments:
Post a Comment