Artichoke and Pasta Salad

Submitted by Pebbles

"From Cooking Light magazine. I LOVE cold salads in the summertime. This one is exceptional. I often use the artichokes hearts in the jar with olive oil and spices already in it. You may need to adjust for that unless using the plain hearts."

 

• Ready In: 20mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 1 (14 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and divided
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1⁄4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 cups cooked radiatore (about 5 ounces uncooked short coiled pasta)
• 2 cups thinly sliced spinach
• 1 cup chopped seeded tomatoes
• 1⁄4 cup crumbled feta cheese (one ounce)

directions

1. Combined 2 artichoke hearts, olive oil, and the next six ingredients (olive oil through garlic) in a blender or food processor, and process until mixture is smooth.
2. Chop the remaining artichoke hearts.
3. Combine the chopped artichokes, pasta, spinach and chopped tomato in a large bowl.
4. Pour pureed artichoked mixture over pasta mixture, and toss well to coat.
5. Cover and chill 2 hours.
6. Sprinkle with feta cheese.
7. Yields six servings (one cup each).

Reviews

[SlowFoodie]

We prefered this served warm. Tasty.

 

[Wisent]

I made this salad for dinner on a hot day in August. It was quite good, and colourful too. I particularly enjoyed the dressing; it's a clever way of better distributing the artichoke flavour. I made several substitutions: I used 2 (dry) cups of whole wheat fusilli pasta, marinated artichokes,1 1/2 tbsp fresh basil and 1 tbsp fresh oregano, added a 1/2 cup of thinly sliced mushrooms and used 2/3 cup of pitted kalamata olives in place of the feta. Since I prepared this ahead of time, I added the spinach just before serving because I was afraid it might wilt. Served with recipe #155304 and homemade melba toast. Thanks for sharing this recipe!

 

[Ms B.]

Pebbles recommended this recipe to me in 4th of July menu thread. I am glad that I took her suggestion, even though I didn't have all of the proper ingredients (but had her blessing to sub as needed). I use penne pasta rather than the radiatore and fresh herbs instead of the dried. I also subbed broccoli for the spinach and added diced red onion and sliced black olives. The base dressing of the recipe was great with these ingredients. The salad was a hit at the cookout and will be made again. Thanks for posting such a flexible recipe.