Gazpacho Pasta Salad
Published in Salads
Best served at room temperature.
Ingredients:
- 500 gr pasta shells, cooked al dente
- ½ cup spring onions, chopped
- 2 large tomatoes, seeded, chopped
- ½ – 1 red pepper, seeded, diced
- ½ – 1 green/yellow pepper, seeded, diced
- 1½ cups, seeded, diced cucumber (optional)
Ingredients: Lime Dressing:
- ½ cup olive oil
- ½ cup fresh lime/lemon juice
- salt to taste
- freshly ground pepper to taste
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 – 3 tsp chilli paste, or to taste
- 1½ cups tomato juice
Preparation:
- Whisk all the ingredients for the dressing thoroughly, until it emulsifies slightly. (This looks like a lot of dressing, but it is important that a pasta salad is ‘wet’, when you make it, as the pasta absorbs the dressing like a sponge, and, if you don’t start with a lot of dressing the salad will be dry and sticky).
- Drain the pasta, tip it into a large bowl, and pour over the dressing immediately.
- Carefully mix, and leave to cool slightly, then stir in the remaining ingredients. Check the seasoning.
- Fresh lime juice gives this dressing the nicest flavour, but I’ve often made it with lemon juice very satisfactorily.
- Notes:
- It is not necessary to use only olive oil; I usually use olive and sunflower oil mixed, and sometimes just sunflower.
- Don’t buy the tomato juice cocktail which already has some seasonings in it.
Serves 6 – 8.
