Caprese Pasta Salad


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Made this pasta salad last week and decided to lower the pasta and up the veggie count.  The original recipe is here.

2 Cups dry pasta
1 container grape tomatoes cut in half
1/2 pound fresh, water-packed mozzarella, cubed
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
garlic powder to taste
1/2 teaspoon mayonnaise
1 teaspoon kosher salt (or half as much table salt)
freshly ground black pepper
8 kale leaves washed and torn into small pieces
2 lg handfuls of mixed organic salad greens torn up into small pieces

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it heavily (it should taste like seawater), then add the pasta and cook until just done.
Meanwhile, prepare the tomatoes and cheese and put them in a very large bowl. Whisk together the vinegar, olive oil, garlic, mayonnaise, salt, and pepper to taste; the mayo will help keep the oil and vinegar from separating. Drain the hot pasta and shake it dry (don’t rinse it), then add it to the bowl with the cheese and tomatoes and stir with a rubber spatula to combine.  Add about half the dressing, and stir again, then fold in the kale and mixed greens.

Now taste the pasta, and add more dressing, if it needs it,  and add more seasoning if needed.  Serve and enjoy!

I used most of the dressing and although it tasted delicious it was more than needed.  This salad was so good!  The warmth of the pasta softened the cheese and made it just melt in your mouth.  The added greens were also very good.   We will be making this again, maybe in other variations and next time with less dressing.

Linked to: Lil Luna, Girlish Whims, Sugar and Dots

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5 Responses to “Caprese Pasta Salad”

  1. [...] Monday:  Caprese Pasta Salad [...]

  2. I love those flavors together! I’m definitely bookmarking this one. Thanks!!

  3. This looks so yummy! Anything with tomatoes and mozzarella sounds good to me haha

    Thanks for linking up to Your Whims Wednesday! Hope to see ya again later this week :)

  4. [...] Wednesday: Tuna Pasta Salad (this will be a spinoff to the Caprese Pasta Salad) [...]

  5. [...] on last weeks menu I posted that I was going to make a Tuna Pasta Salad that was a spin off to the Caprese Salad we had a couple weeks back.  Well I ended up using Salmon instead of Tuna but it came out so [...]

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