Sara,
You made mead!? That is so cool! I’m very excited to hear about how it tastes in a few months! If I randomly come into pound of honey, this is how I’ll use. The idea of mead cocktails is very cool so looking forward to that post when it’s ready.
I just got to Martha’s Vineyard for a week of hanging with Clare’s family! We had a really long travel day and were first to get to the house. We were so tired but knew the rest of the family, arriving much later, and would be even more tired and so hungry. I wanted to make something easy and filling with a few ingredients. So as usual, went to Tiktok for inspiration.
There are millions of trends (and I’ve probably tried half of them) but two immediately come to mind for being easy and filling. One being Pasta Salad Summer, linking a playlist of recipes from one of it’s creators, Babytamago. And other being the Dense Bean Salad, with a playlist of recipes from Violet.Cooks.
Clare really loves a pasta salad but I just haven’t had ones I find exceptional. Most of the time, I think they’re too sweet, one note, and worst of all, not very filling. They tend to be a glorified side dish, but adding some beans could make them main dish worthy. With ingredient ideas from the recipes above, I present a Not So Shabby Pasta Bean Salad.
For something big and easy, I think it came out pretty well! Only a few ingredients, not much stove time, and tasty. I was thinking of adding tuna but Clare had the good call to eat a serving without, then add tuna to what would surely be many leftovers to freshen up the flavor. Leftovers can suck, but pasta salad feels so easy to edit and update. I think I’m on to something so may try other bean and pasta salad combos in the future!
Pasta Bean Salad
1 box of pasta (rotini, fusilli, or cavatappi all great)
1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, quartered
2 15 oz. cans of cannellini/white beans, drained
12 oz. jar of marinated artichokes, not drained
8 oz. of mozzarella pearls
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup of diced chives
2 lemons, juiced
Extra olive oil
Sea Salt & Pepper
Prepare the pasta using directions on box but make sure the water is really salty. These little pastas need as much flavor as they can get. Drain when done and set aside to cool fully to room temperature.
Meanwhile, quarter your cherry tomatoes. Combine with salt and a glug of olive oil to let it infuse with some flavor. Remove the artichokes from the jar, setting the oil aside. Cut them into half inch chunks. Add to the tomatoes and toss.
In a large bowl, combine the leftover seasoned oil from the artichokes, the red wine vinegar, juice of one lemon, lots of sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. Taste and add more lemon as you like. To the larger bowl with your dressing, add pasta, beans, mozzarella, tomatoes, artichokes, and chives. Toss to combine and serve.
Still convinced a good quality oil packed tuna would be great in there! Some other good additions would be:
Canned fish: tuna, trout, mackerel
Salty cheese: feta, parmesan, pecorino
More herbs: basil, scallions
A running letter between long distance friends who love to eat
Do you miss your best friend? Are really hungry you right now? If the answer to either of these is yes, you know what to do.