Rotini Chopped Salad That Keeps
A vinaigrette pasta salad built only from things that do not weep. Dress it hot, keep it cold, and Friday still eats like Monday.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 10 min
- Total
- 30 min
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
About 8 cups. Packs into six lunch containers.
- ThinSlim 12 oz ThinSlim Foods Impastable Low Carb Pasta Rotini
- 2 tbsp kosher salt, for the pasta water
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- 4 oz salami, cut into thin matchsticks
- 4 oz provolone, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
- 1/2 cup oil packed sun dried tomatoes, drained and sliced
- 1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, halved
- 1/2 cup sliced pepperoncini, drained and patted dry
- 1/2 small red onion, sliced thin
- 1 cup diced celery
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- Chopped parsley, to finish each portion
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Method
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the kosher salt, and cook the rotini to the package timing.
- While it cooks, soak the sliced red onion in cold water for 10 minutes, then drain it well.
- Whisk the oil, vinegar, mustard, oregano and garlic in the bottom of a large bowl with a heavy pinch of salt.
- Drain the rotini and shake the colander hard. Do not rinse it.
- Tip the hot rotini straight into the dressing and toss. Let it sit 10 minutes, tossing once or twice.
- Add the salami, provolone, sun dried tomatoes, olives, pepperoncini, drained onion and celery. Toss again.
- Season with salt and plenty of black pepper. Chill at least 2 hours before the first serving.
- Portion into containers. Keep the parsley separate and add it to each portion as you eat it.
Tips
Semolina pasta is a bad bet for a week of lunches. Its starch firms up cold, goes chalky, and keeps drinking the vinaigrette until day three is a dry bowl. Impastable has no starch doing that, so the spirals stay springy and the dressing stays a dressing. Shake the container before you eat, because the oil settles.
Everything wet was left out on purpose. Fresh tomato and cucumber release water and you end up with pink soup by Wednesday. Sun dried tomato, celery, olives and pepperoncini all hold their texture.
Dress the rotini while it is hot. It takes on seasoning much better warm than cold. Taste it cold, not warm, and add a splash of vinegar around day four to wake it up.
Everything wet was left out on purpose. Fresh tomato and cucumber release water and you end up with pink soup by Wednesday. Sun dried tomato, celery, olives and pepperoncini all hold their texture.
Dress the rotini while it is hot. It takes on seasoning much better warm than cold. Taste it cold, not warm, and add a splash of vinegar around day four to wake it up.