During summer, tuna is one of the most popularly used ingredients by those who love to prepare delicious colorful pasta or rice salads with tomato and mozzarella. In time perhaps you fancy a change and want to create something without these staple ingredients. This is where we come in with some recommendations on some new great fresh summer pasta salad recipes!
Pasta salad with cherry tomatoes, pesto, and mozzarella
It’s a tasty and fresh recipe, super easy to make. First, you have to cook in boiling water one pound of short pasta for 4 people. Wash 7 oz cherry tomatoes and cut them in half. Cut the mozzarella however into cubes and keep them aside in a strainer. They need to rest and lose their excess liquid.
As soon as the pasta is ready, drain it and pass it through cold running water to stop it from cooking. At this point, you combine the pasta, cherry tomatoes, and mozzarella together in a salad bowl and add the pesto. Add 4 oz pesto alla genovese and mix in two or three handfuls of grated cheese. Adjust with salt and pepper and with a ladle mix everything together nicely.
All that remains is to keep the pasta in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours, remembering to cover the container with transparent cling film to preserve its flavor.
Pasta salad with zucchini and olives
Zucchini is one of those ingredients that’s widely used in the kitchen when it comes to cold pasta salad. To prepare this dish for 4 people you need: one pound penne rigate, two zucchini, one onion, 2 oz pitted black olives, oregano olive oil, and salt.
It begins as always with the cooking of the pasta. Once drained, possibly al dente, you have to put it back in a bowl and season with a little oil. In the meantime, clean the zucchini, cut them up into chunks. In a pan, put some oil and sauté a small onion until golden brown. Then add the zucchini and a little salt and cook everything over medium heat for about a quarter of an hour, remembering to stir it occasionally.
After the required fifteen minutes have passed, add the other ingredients together with the olives and season. A pinch of oregano and the pasta salad with zucchini and olives is ready. Keep it in the fridge and enjoy it when the right moment arises.
Pasta salad with prosciutto and melon
A summer dish with class! You start by taking half a melon, removing the seeds and filaments, and then peel it. Then you cut the pulp into cubes and put it in a bowl. In the meantime, after cooking 11 oz fusilli, remove the fat from 5 oz prosciutto crudo which is at least one centimeter thick, then cut into strips. In a pan fry two small onions.
Once they are ready, place them in the same bowl as the melon and prosciutto crudo. When the pasta is ready, al dente, it is passed through cold water and added to the other ingredients. A drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and a few mint leaves (or basil) and mix nicely together. Keep in the fridge and you're done.
Pasta salad with chickpeas, tomatoes, and olives
The ingredients for four people are: one pound penne pasta, 5 oz chickpeas, 2 oz pitted black olives, 7 oz cherry tomatoes, half a white onion, two small zucchini, and four carrots.
First of all, cut the onion into thin slices and soak it in cold water for about twenty minutes. In the meantime, cut the zucchini into thin slices and the carrots into small pieces. These ingredients are added to a bowl, together with the chickpeas already drained.
Season everything with salt, pepper, and oil and, once the pasta is ready, mix everything together, adding the chopped tomatoes and olives. A drizzle of oil and a little fresh basil and your excellent pasta salad with chickpeas, tomatoes, and olives is ready! Complete by leaving it in the fridge for at least half an hour before serving.