Italian Pasta Salad with Homemade Dressing

(Upbeat music) If you're looking for a good Italian pasta salad you've come to the right place My husband Jason is Italian and after being married for nearly a decade I've come to realize that he's pretty picky when it comes to his favorite dishes luckily after lots of testing he's given this recipe a thumbs-up I'm going to show you how to properly cook the pasta so that it soaks up all of that irresistible zesty dressing so stick around (Upbeat music) For this recipe I use rotini It's a short, cut type of pasta that has lots of twists and grooves to trap the flavorful dressing inside it's important to cook the pasta to a certain doneness and you might be surprised to find out why let's head over to the stove and get started In a large pot bring four quarts of water and one tablespoon of salt to a boil add one pound of rotini pasta and cook for about nine to ten minutes or until tender As a culinary scientist I would love for you to geek out with me for a second typically when we cook pasta we'll do it till it's al dente or a little bit chewy in the center before a cold pasta salad we want the noodles to be soft throughout but not mushy that extra time boiling in the water is going to activate the starches so that the surface gets a little bit more sticky so that the dressing can cling to it better and absorb more flavor let's take a test (upbeat music) that's perfect (upbeat music) Drain the pasta and rinse with cold water for about one minute until the noodles are cool this will immediately stop the cooking process and firm up the noodles shake off any excess water and then transfer to a large bowl After college I had the chance to travel throughout Italy and I absolutely fell in love with antipasto it's an appetizer platter that has cured meats amazing cheese's, pickled vegetables, and briny olives, and guess what we're gonna put it all into the pasta we need to make sure that we cut those mix-ins into bite-sized pieces so that they complement the size of the noodles Cut six ounces of mozzarella cheese balls into halves slice four ounces of salami into a quarter inch thick strips cut one cup of baby tomatoes into halves Chop both green and red bell peppers into half-inch dice and measure out about a half cup each chop 1/2 a cup of red onion into a quarter inch dice Measure out a half a cup of sliced black olives slice 1/3 cup of pepperoncini Add the ingredients to the bowl with the pasta add 1 tablespoon parsley and 1 tablespoon of basil stir to combine now I'm gonna make an Italian dressing we don't want a greasy and broken vinaigrette so it's really important that you slowly drizzle in the olive oil and whisk constantly this is going to break the fat into small droplets so that we have a uniform oil-and-water emulsion when done right you're going to have a thickened dressing that's going to cling on to the ingredients I also add in a little bit of mayonnaise, honey, and mustard to act as emulsifying agents which is going to keep the vinaigrette stable for longer in a medium-sized bowl whisk together 1/3 cup red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp mustard, 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning, 2 teaspoons mayonnaise, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons garlic, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and 1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes slowly drizzle in one cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil and vigorously whisk until a thickened emulsified dressing forms taste and season with more salt and pepper as desired for the freshest taste I recommend adding 1 cup of the Italian dressing to the pasta right before you're ready to serve and don't worry I made sure that there was extra dressing in the recipe so you could drizzle some more on later or serve it on the side and then I also like to add a little bit of black pepper on top a little bit more fresh parsley oh my gosh you guys I see my husband drooling over there can't wait to dig in now you can make the salad ahead of time but I would wait to add the dressing until right before you're ready to eat if you guys have any recipe or technique requests feel free to share in the comment section below and I'll see you guys down there and if you enjoyed this video make sure to check out this one it's one of my favorites I hope you enjoyed the science behind Italian pasta salad and if you did please be sure to give it a like and subscribe it really means a lot when you do thanks for watching and remember cook with confidence you got this see you later

Channel: Jessica Gavin

Views: 206,021

Keywords: recipes, jessica gavin, food, cooking, cooking techniques, pasta salad, pasta salad recipe, how to make pasta salad, italian pasta salad, classic pasta salad, best pasta salad, pasta salad with italian dressing, italian dressing pasta salad, italian pasta salad recipe, how to make italian pasta salad, the best italian pasta salad, easy italian pasta salad recipe, classic italian pasta salad, italian dressing, salad, pasta salad recipes, easy pasta salad recipe, side dish

Id: R6jwM9aptRI

Length: 5min 55sec (355 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 03 2020