Neapolitan Dressing with a Pasta Salad
Description
We love a great Italian salad, and this is one of our favorite pasta salads, which we're sure you'll enjoy too!
At a Glance
Equipment
No special culinary equipment is needed to prepare this Neopolitan salad.
Ingredients
For the Neapolitan Dressing:
2 Anchovy Fillets, finely chopped
2 cloves of Garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of fresh Lemon Juice
2 tablespoons of White Wine Vinegar
2 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 teaspoon of Black Pepper, freshly ground
For the Pasta Salad:
4 ounces of dried Tricolor Rotini
4 ounces of dried Tricolor, Four-Cheese Tortellini (to produce approximately 2 ½ cups of cooked pasta)
1-½ tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
¾ cup of Plum Tomatoes, chopped in ¼-inch chunks
½ cup of Grana Padano Cheese, cut into ¼-inch chunks
¼-cup of Castelvetrano Olives, sliced
½ cup of Salsicci Secca Salami, chopped into ¼ inch chunks (this is a Neapolitan salami; you can also substitute another hard-Italian Salami in place of this salami)
2 tablespoons of Red Onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of Basil leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon of Green Onion, finely chopped
Directions
To Prepare the Neapolitan Dressing:
In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients, except the Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Once the ingredients are incorporated, slowly whisk in the olive oil. Store it in the refrigerator.
To Prepare the Pasta Salad:
In a large stock pot, add water, so that the stock pot is approximately ¾-full of water and then add some salt. Bring the salted water to a boil and drop in the tortellini and cook it, based on the instructions on the bag/container of the pasta. Note that the cooking time varies by brand, so it is important to follow the instructions on the container of pasta. The pasta should be cooked so that it is just “al dente”. Once the pasta is cooked, use a slotted spoon to remove the tortellini from the water and place it in a colander to allow the water to continue to drain. Bring the water back to a boil and once it is boiling again, add the rotini pasta to the water and cook it, following the instructions on the container. Once the rotini is cooked “al dente”, drain the rotini into the colander. Once the tortellini and rotini are drained, rinse them with cold water, drain further, and place the pasta on a cookie sheet with the olive oil. With your hands, massage the oil into the pasta so that the pasta doesn’t stick together and spread it out across the cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet into the refrigerator. While the pasta is cooling, in a serving salad bowl, add all of the other salad ingredients and mix them together. Once the pasta is cooled, add the pasta to the bowl, and mix them all until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed. In about a half hour prior to serving, mix the dressing with the pasta salad ingredients and set it into the refrigerator. After a half an hour in the refrigerator, mix and serve the pasta salad.
Serving Suggestion:
This is a terrific salad dressing that can be served on many different salads, including green salads. In this instance, we served it on a Neapolitan pasta salad.
Wine Pairings
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