Christmas Pasta Salad With Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

Method

1. Bring a large pot of water to the boil and salt it until it tastes like a mild broth.
2. Cook the fusilli for one to two minutes longer than the packet says, until there is no chalky centre left.
3. Scoop out a mug of the cooking water and keep it beside the stove.
4. Drain the pasta and do not rinse it.
5. Tip it into a wide bowl or onto a tray and turn the olive oil through it while it is still steaming.
6. Spread it out in a single layer and leave it for 10 minutes, until it is warm rather than hot.
7. Spoon the whole jar of pesto over the warm pasta.
8. Turn it through with a spatula, adding 2 tablespoons of the reserved cooking water so the pesto loosens and reaches every twist.
9. Leave the bowl on the bench for 20 minutes to come down to room temperature.
10. Drain the olives and halve them, pressing any stones out with the flat of a knife.
11. Fold the olives, tomatoes and bocconcini through the pasta.
12. Add the lemon zest and juice, then taste and season with sea salt and black pepper.
13. Scatter the rocket, basil and almonds over the top just before the bowl goes to the table and turn it through once.

The night before, and the hour before

Make it to the end of step 9, cover the bowl and keep it in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Hold the olives, tomatoes, cheese and leaves back until the day. Tomatoes leach water overnight and rocket goes to slime against a wet dressing, so adding them early costs you the texture you cooked the pasta for.

Cold thickens the dressing, so take the bowl out of the fridge 30 to 45 minutes before you eat and give it a splash of warm water or a teaspoon of olive oil, then turn it through. It comes back glossy in about a minute. This is the step people skip, and it is the reason a fridge cold pasta salad tastes stodgy when the same bowl was excellent the night before. On a hot day keep it in the shade, put it out shortly before people sit down, and take it back in when the plates are cleared rather than leaving it in the sun through the afternoon.

Common questions

Can you make pasta salad the night before?

Yes, and a pesto one is better for it, because the pasta keeps taking up the dressing while it sits. Cook, dress and cool the pasta, then refrigerate it covered for up to 24 hours. Add the fresh items on the day: tomatoes, cheese, leaves and herbs. Loosen the whole bowl with warm water or a little oil before it goes out, since the dressing tightens in the cold.

How do you stop pasta salad drying out?

Keep a mug of the starchy cooking water and use a splash of it when you dress the pasta, then again before serving. Dress the pasta while it is warm rather than cold, so it absorbs the sauce instead of shedding it. Toss the drained pasta with a little olive oil before the pesto goes on, and cover the bowl in the fridge rather than leaving it open, which dries the surface fastest of all.

How much pasta salad do you need per person?

Allow 60g to 80g of dry pasta a head when it is one of several sides, and 100g to 125g when it is the main dish. So 500g of dry pasta covers eight people at a table that also has a green salad and a potato salad on it, or about five if the bowl is doing the heavy lifting on its own. Cooked weight roughly doubles, which is worth knowing when you are choosing a bowl to carry it in.

Ordering the pantry half

A jar of Belazu Sun Dried Tomato Pesto is $12.95 and dresses the whole 500g of pasta, and the fusilli napoletani is $24.95 for 500g, so the shelf stable part of this salad is a short list. Both sit in our pasta and risotto range alongside the rest of the Belazu range. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, and shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100.

If you are working out the rest of the December table, our guide to Christmas salads and the dressings that carry them covers what goes either side of this bowl. Buying for someone who cooks, the Belazu signature pesto gift set is $55.00 and boxes up a selection of the range, and our Christmas hampers handle the rest of the list.