welcome friends welcome back to the
kitchen today I've got the smoker fired
up and we're gonna do some ribs so I
thought I would make a pasta salad to go
with that so I've got a pot of salted
water here and it is coming up to
temperature so that I can boil the pasta
but first I'm gonna make the dressing so
I'm gonna start out with some olive oil
and the better flavored olive oil that
you can get is great for this one
because you will taste the oil and then
I'm going to put in some vinegar and
this is rice wine vinegar
I find that rice wine vinegar has a nice
light flavor it doesn't really intrude
it brings some acidity but it's not you
know front right in front of your face
now a vinaigrette dressing is usually
three parts oil three parts oil and one
part vinegar and that is the classic
amount and you can play with that a
little bit and I know that a lot of
people will put in water instead of all
of the oil just to make it a little bit
lighter and you can do that if you want
to as long as you know where you're
supposed to be you can start to play
with where you want to be in in any
ratio for recipes so I put that into a
beaker because I'm gonna use a stick
blender to bring this all together
I now have red pepper flakes some basil
and some oregano I'll put that in now
before I came in I went and picked a
couple pieces of garlic from our garden
it hasn't grown a bulb down here at the
end yet so it's got a much lighter
flavor than garlic would have later in
the season so I'm gonna put that in as
well and I just gave it a rough chop
just to make it a little bit easier for
the stick blender to bring this together
so here we go
and that's it
once it's emulsified like it is right
now you've made a basic vinaigrette and
you can play with the flavors in there
might need a little bit of salt and
pepper if you want some salt and pepper
and you can put it on any salad you want
okay the water is boiling so in goes the
pasta and you could use any shape you
want this just happens to be what I have
on hand and I want to cook this until
it's al dente okay
next up is some veg and the first thing
I'm going to do is cut a little bit of
red onion and I'm gonna slice long
slices and this is about a quarter of an
onion of course all of this is to taste
it is your salad if you see something
that you want more of put more in if
there's something that you don't want
leave it out
there's nothing critical in this type of
recipe you can do pretty much whatever
you want so I'm gonna cut up this onion
and I'm gonna set that aside just before
the pasta is done I'm gonna put that
into the pot to cook for about a minute
and it'll just soften the flavor a
little bit next up some celery and I'm
gonna cut that just in sizes big enough
that they'll fit on a fork and into the
bowl okay some radishes and it'll be the
same sort of thing with these fairly big
slices
then a pepper any color you like I just
happen to have orange cuz that's what's
been at the grocery store lately so take
at the center and the seeds and then the
same sort of deal just cut it into
chunks
okay let's check the pasta I think we're
getting pretty close yeah so I'm gonna
put the onion in and it's just gonna
cook a little bit for about a minute or
so with the pasta and it'll just soften
out that flavor okay I think this is
coming together pretty well so I have
some little Tomatoes I didn't get cherry
tomatoes or grape tomatoes or even just
full-sized roma tomatoes and then cut
them up into bite-sized pieces
you might cut them in half you might cut
them in quarters
whatever size works for you so I'm gonna
cut these up and I'm gonna put them on
top pretty much last but I want to have
them ready to go I've also got some
black olives and I'm gonna put those on
as well now normally I would buy black
olives with the pits still in them but I
couldn't find them last time at the
grocery store so I bought these now the
reason I buy them with the pits still in
them is I think they maintain their
texture better so I'm gonna pull out a
few of these and we're just gonna give
them a rough chop to put on top as well
and just a handful these are things that
you have to judge while you're cooking
and yeah
I still have great flavor there just a
little bit mushy um something about
having the pit inside that just keeps
them a little bit better
okay so rough chop that's it don't have
to do much
let's check the pasta yeah I'm gonna say
the pasta is done so I'm going to turn
that off and we'll shake out as much
water as we can okay and into the bowl
with the veg it's always a couple
there's always a couple that stick okay
on top of that I'm gonna put while the
pasta is still hot I'm gonna put the
vinaigrette then we're gonna mix that in
okay put the olives in give it a stir
and now I'm gonna stick this in the
fridge for a couple hours just to let
the flavors all come together and it is
the kind of salad that you want to eat
cold so into the fridge it goes and just
before serving is when I'll put the
tomatoes on see you back here for the
tasting okay we are ready for serving so
I'm gonna take the tomatoes and spread
them on top this is all to the point
where you should check the seasoning if
it needs a little bit more salt and
pepper you can add that in now mix it in
make it really nice going to I've got
some bocconcini here which are tiny
little balls of fresh cheese so someone
we're getting away so spread those on
top they add a really nice tough flavor
and texture difference maybe just a
couple more there we go and lastly I've
got some parsley here and I'm just going
to use scissors and cut it on top hey
Joel then hey friends
well I've already got Forks that's a
pretty-looking salad it is a pretty
looking salad I can make a pretty
looking salad when I need to so um drip
you're still smoking they're not ready
yet I miscalculated the time but we've
got salad to tide us over so here we go
pretty simple pasta salads for me okay
thank you nothing terribly fancy
completely open to interpretation but
it's that nice cool we're kind of
refreshing I'm hoping you're hoping
mm-hmm radish in there there we go it is
a classic pasta salad mm-hmm mm-hmm
so cool there's different textures you
know you've got the bright from the from
the vinegar the the oil sort of
complements that well big cheese mm-hmm
so you really play with this play with
the vegetables you put in maybe not put
as many vegetables in put in more
vegetables any pasta that you want to
use I always put it in more vegetables
mm-hmm I mean I've seen people make this
with spaghetti so if what you have is
spaghetti it works it really does work
and it's something that can be made a
day or two in advance kept in the fridge
and you bring it to a potluck or a
barbecue or something so I'm gonna keep
eating cuz probably gonna be another
hour before those ribs are ready thanks
for stopping by stay safe see you guys
soon
you
