Today I offer you a completely vegetarian cold pasta enriched with Romanesco broccoli and many other vegetables. It’s a very colorful and tasty short pasta salad, prepared using ingredients I already had in the fridge. Pasta salads are very practical because they can be prepared well in advance, perfect for lunch and dinner or as a takeaway lunch to enjoy at work or during leisure time. This delicious preparation can also be made with whole wheat pasta or rice, or gluten-free pasta.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 4
- Cooking methods: Boiling
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer
Ingredients
- 1.1 lbs Romanesco broccoli
- 8.8 oz short pasta
- 20 green and black pitted olives
- 6 soaked sun-dried tomatoes
- 10 cherry tomatoes
- to taste pickles (optional)
- to taste thinly sliced Tropea onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 stalk celery (cut into small pieces)
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste fine salt
Steps
To prepare the cold pasta, start by briefly boiling the Romanesco broccoli.
Remove any spoiled parts, and reduce it into florets (breaking up larger parts).
Bring water to a boil with a level teaspoon of coarse salt.
As soon as the water boils, add the Romanesco broccoli florets, cover, let it come back to a boil, and boil the broccoli at a full boil for 5-7 minutes at most, to prevent it from becoming too soft or mushy.
Drain the broccoli immediately and very well, transfer it to a salad bowl.
While boiling the broccoli, bring salted water to a boil in another pot to cook the pasta.
Cook the pasta for only half the time indicated on the package; this way, we can be sure it will maintain the right consistency, without becoming overcooked and mushy, until it’s time to eat.
When the pasta is ready, drain it perfectly and add it to the Romanesco broccoli and season everything with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to prevent the pasta from clumping together into a single block.
Let everything cool for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, then we can add all the other ingredients, cut into more or less small pieces.
Season with a little more fine salt, extra virgin olive oil, mix very well, cover and let it flavor either at room temperature or in the fridge, well covered, until it’s time to serve it.
For an extra fresh touch, replace the pickles with finely grated lemon zest (without the white inner part), added together with the other ingredients of our pasta salad.
