This is not your typical pasta salad, oh no, this my friends is a beautiful, delicious Italian inspired thingamajiggy of a pasta salad. Wanna know what’s actually amazeballs about this salad? It takes mere minutes to throw together! It’s kinda how it came about to be honest. We had just gotten in some incredible tomatoes in work and a fresh batch of Toonsbridge Mozzarella (From West Cork), so I bought them thinking I would make something fab with them but the truth was I was so tired and so damn hungry when I got home all I wanted was something really quick and super duper tasty but not as filling and heavy as a stodgy pasta dish. And so this pasta salad was born. It’s fresh flavoursome and the perfect dinner for a sunny summers evening / lunch.
In terms of health, I’m not gonna lie to you and tell you that if you eat this all day everyday that you’re gonna be a skinny mini but the good news is that it has a whopper load full of vitamins A, C, K, B6, folate, and thiamin due to the fresh tomatoes. Tomatoes are also a good source of potassium, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, and copper. Not to mention that there’s kale in it and EVERYBODY knows that you’re not super cool until you’re eating kale! 😝
Serves two super hungry adults
INGREDIENTS:
2 Cups of the best tomatoes you can find
1 Cup Baby Kale
1½ Cup Pasta of your choice (I used Fussily)
1 Avocado
1 Ball fresh Mozzarella cheese
1 Heaped Tbsp. of Sundried tomato pesto
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional:
Balsamic glaze to decorate
First things first pop the kettle on. Nope we’re not making tea, well ok, go on then! Would be rude not to. Just make sure you have enough water left to cook the pasta as well.
Once the kettle is boiled, pop the pasta on and cook according to the packets instructions until its al dente (Just a fancy pants Italian way of saying it has still a little bit of a bite, this ensures that the pasta will have a lower GI and will be more filling). Now go enjoy that cup of tea! 😛☕️
Ok tea break over, chop the tomatoes in whatever fashion you fancy, I like to cut them into different shapes and sizes so that they all look different.
Next we tackle the avocado! Now excuse me if you are already well versed in the art of cutting avocados but I thought id pass on my way of doing it just incase. Its super simple, no matter what way I’m using the avocado I always do it this way. Ok so, cut the avocado in half, length ways. Next take the half that still has the stone in it in one hand. Gently squeeze the sides around the middle of the avocado and the stone should pop right out and lastly pull the skin away from the beautiful green flesh. et voila, there you have it, your perfect Avocado.
For this salad I like to slice the avocado into thin long strips so that everything in the salad has different shapes, sizes and textures.
Now to assemble, toss the cooked pasta and tomatoes with the sundried tomato pesto so that they are lightly covered, next add the baby kale and thin strips of avocado. Lastly rip and tear the mozzarella so that it is dotted all through the salad.
If you want to be fancy you can drizzle the salad with some balsamic glaze for flavor and flare but as always that’s up to you! That’s is my friend! I hope you love it as much as we do, apologies for the lack of photos, as I said I was super hungry so kinda threw it together extra fast!
Ennnnnnnnnnjoy!!!! xxxxx
SWEFF-THE-CHEF 