Italian pasta salad recipe with vegetables, herbs and squid
Italian pasta salad is a very fresh way to eat pasta, common in the summer. I usually prepare that for picnics and pack meals and join it with my family in the countryside.
This version comes from a recipe I found on a cookbook, I adapted it and the result is delicious. It perfectly melts together the taste of the squid and the freshness of the veggies!
Don’t forget that the best with the fish is a rose wine like Bortolotti Spumante Lagrein Rosé from Veneto (a region in the north of Italy)
INGREDIENTS
Here is what you need for your Italian pasta salad recipe:
- 250 grams of pasta
- 10 medium-sized calamari / squid or 5 large
- 2 medium carrots
- 2 medium zucchini
- 1 bunch of arugula
- 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- Juice and grated zest of 1 lemon
- Basil
- Chives
- A bush of parsley
- Salt
DIRECTIONS
- Clean the squids by removing the skin, the internal parts and the mouth (or buy them already cleaned)
- Wash them and cut into slices
- Cut both carrots and zucchini in thin slices with a potato peeler
- Chop every herb well: parsley, basil and chives
- Grate the lemon zest
- In a large bowl, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and arugula leaves
- Cook the pasta in boiling salted water (1 liter of water and a tablespoon of salt for every 100 gr of pasta) for 3 minutes
- Add the squids and stir
- At 4 minutes before the end of the suggested cooking time for the pasta “al dente” add the zucchini slices and after a couple of minutes even carrots slices
- Drain thoroughly and pour it into the bowl with the arugula and oil
- Add grated zest and juice of lemon, stir
- Add 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- Add the herbs and stir again
- Let stand for an hour before serving and garnish with a few sprigs of parsley and some chives
- Enjoy your Italian pasta salad recipe and Buon Appetito from Easy Italian Cuisine!
