Fresh Tomato and Feta Pasta Salad

Cryssiekins's Note:

This cold pasta salad is light but has bite! Perfect as a side for grilled meats at dinner time, or with a sandwich at lunch. This recipe was inspired by my love for fresh tomatoes and feta cheese and only took a few tries to get the perfect balance of substance.

• Total Time: 25 mins
• Prep Time: 25 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 2 cups uncooked rotini noodles (or any spiral noodle you like)
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sweet onions, chopped
• 1 medium tomato, cut into bite-size pieces
• 3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 tablespoon oil (I prefer grape seed oil)

Directions:

1. Boil Rotini noodles until soft. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool the noodles.
2. Add noodles, chopped onion, and red wine vinegar to a medium sized bowl. Toss well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate approximately 15 minutes. This allows the noodles to absorb the vinegar and lets the flavors infuse while cooling.
3. Add the oil to the cooled noodles and toss gently.
4. Just before serving, add tomato pieces and feta cheese crumbles. Toss well. Sprinkle on more red wine vinegar if the salad is too dry, but be careful, you don't want to use too much and make the salad runny!
5. Serve with a slotted spoon. Enjoy!

Reviews

[SarasotaCook]

A very nice light salad. I happened to use grape tomatoes, but obviously that did not change the taste of the salad. I used a corkscrew noodle vs the rotini. And, I also used a grapeseed oil which I wasn't as fond of. I think a richer olive oil would of worked better. The one thing I did change after I tasted it was seasoning. To me it was very bland. I added some fresh basil, pepper, just a bit of salt because the feta is salty and a pinch of garlic. It is a very quick easy healthy salad.
Made for PAC 2011 ~