Quail Run Ranch

This is as easy as the day is long…

I always marveled at my grandmother’s and mother’s recipes. A lot of times you would pick one up, for example my grandmother’s corn relish recipe, and it didn’t have amounts for each ingredient. It would say “corn, bell peppers, celery, apple cider vinegar, etc. and you would have to guess how much of one thing or another you had to put in. Now I understand this. I have been cooking since I was fourteen when my dad said, “Let’s go to Bacino’s Market. I’ll buy the ingredients and you make the meal.” I made spaghetti bolognese that time and I followed the recipe out of the cookbook to the letter. Years have gone by and I’ve made so many things so many times that now I don’t follow recipes most of the time. I have a feel for what works.

This recipe for pasta salad is like that. So I’m going to give it to you straight and you can make it your own. I’m using vegetables from my bounteous garden.

Pasta Salad a la Benôit

Ingredients (all these are more or less in quantity. Maybe start out with less and add more if it tastes like you need more of anything.)

Any kind of bite sized cooked pasta to fill a medium bowl 3/4 full (penne, ziti, farfalle, cavatelli, etc.)

A handful of fresh tomatoes / cherry halved or garden quartered, or dried tomatoes in olive oil chopped

A few fresh basil leaves chopped

A handful of fresh red onion minced

A handful of fresh feta cheese in bite sized chunks

A handful of Kalamata olives chopped

A couple tablespoons of balsamic vinaigrette or to taste

Put your cooked pasta in a bowl and add all the ingredients and mix. That’s it, Fort Pitt!