Cold rice with pesto and cherry tomatoes. A tasty and simple summer recipe to prepare, delicious with a few ingredients, very tasty, light, give it a try.
It’s a tasty and very colorful variant of one of the typical recipes of the summer and spring period.
We can serve it for a casual lunch or even for a standing dinner or a buffet on a special occasion.
Rice salad is also perfect for eating out: let’s put it in airtight containers and keep it in a cooler bag until lunchtime.
It is made in a few minutes and with typical summer ingredients, which we can adapt to our needs and tastes.
As a type of rice, I used salad rice, but of course, you can use Arborio, parboiled, red, or black rice.
Moreover, with the same recipe, we can experiment with other types of grains such as barley, spelt, wheat, bulgur, or couscous, or naturally pasta like farfalle, gnocchetti, fusilli, etc.
As cheese, I used diced feta, but mozzarella, emmental, and so on are also fine, you decide.
Like the most classic of rice salads, first of all, we cook the rice and drain it al dente.
We let it cool and add the rest of the ingredients, namely the pesto made with basil, pine nuts, garlic, grated parmesan, and pecorino, and extra virgin olive oil.
I made the pesto with my basil that I keep fresh and fragrant in pots, but store-bought jar pesto is also fine.
Blend all the ingredients, and you will get an ideal pesto for dressing the rice.
Just add it to the rice along with a few other ingredients like fresh cherry tomatoes, arugula, and diced feta, and the salad is ready. We let it rest in the fridge to allow all the ingredients to blend so it becomes super tasty!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 4People
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer
- Energy 694.80 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 56.41 (g) of which sugars 5.68 (g)
- Proteins 19.75 (g)
- Fat 44.96 (g) of which saturated 13.17 (g)of which unsaturated 10.18 (g)
- Fibers 1.92 (g)
- Sodium 1,738.98 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 180 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for Cold Rice with Pesto and Cherry Tomatoes
- 1 1/4 cups rice for salads
- 5.3 oz feta
- 7 oz cherry tomatoes
- to taste arugula
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- 1.4 oz pecorino
- 2.1 oz parmesan
- 1 clove garlic (optional)
- 1.8 oz pine nuts (or walnuts or almonds)
- 2.8 oz basil
- 3.5 oz extra virgin olive oil
- salt
Tools
- Blender
- Pot
- Colander
- Bowl
Steps for Cold Rice with Pesto and Cherry Tomatoes
Wash the basil leaves under running water and drain them well. They can be gently dried with a towel.
Put the basil in the cup, add the salt, peeled garlic clove, and pine nuts.
Add all the oil and start blending intermittently by raising and lowering the immersion blender to avoid heating the basil (this way the pesto does not turn dark).
When you have obtained a fluid cream, you can add the grated cheeses to obtain a thick and homogeneous cream.
(If you don’t like the taste of garlic, you can omit it).
(If you don’t have time, use ready-made pesto).
Cook the rice in plenty of salted water.
Following the cooking times indicated on the package.
Drain the rice.
Rinse it quickly under running water to stop the cooking.
Let it drain for a few minutes and season it with Genoese pesto.
Mix by adding a little olive oil, until it’s all combined.
Add the washed and chopped cherry tomatoes and cheese cubes.
You can add some chopped arugula leaves.
(The amount is up to you according to your taste).
Mix the rice salad and refrigerate until it’s time to serve.
Enjoy your meal.
Tips
A good pesto is made in a mortar, but if you use a blender, follow these tricks: operate at the lowest speed and blend in bursts to prevent the mixture from heating up, place the mixer bowl and blades in the refrigerator for an hour before starting to prepare. This way, the pesto does not become bitter and dark.
It’s suitable to take to the beach or for a work lunch, making sure to store it well in airtight containers.
Freezing is not recommended.
It keeps well in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
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