Tortellini Salad 30-Jul-2011

This is a recreation of a recipe I had made up in my old recipe book. This is basically what I remember, but it could probably use some tweaking.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds tortellini pasta, cooked al dente and cooled.
• 1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled.
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 cup snow peas, cut into bite-sized pieces and blanched.
• 2-3 scallions or green onions, diced
• salt & pepper to taste
• a few sprigs of fresh parsley, chopped (1/2 a bunch?)

Directions

1. Cook the pasta until it is al dente. Tortellini floats when it is done. Drain and cool in cold water.

2. Cut up the snow peas into bite-sized pieces and blanche in boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Drain and cool in cold water.

3. Whisk the oil, vinegar and mustard.

4. Combine the cooled tortellini, snow peas, chopped green onions and crumbled feta cheese, salt & pepper, chopped parsley, and toss with the dressing.

5. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Variations

Today, 30 July 2011, I didn’t have all the above ingredients, yet I wanted to get the tortellini used before it went bad. I made the following substitutions:

• For feta, I used gorgonzolla, and added a bit of parmesan
• Instead of dry mustard, I used a bit of yellow mustard
• Instead of snow peas, I used regular frozen peas
• I added a dash of ground thyme and oregano
• I used about 2 tablespoons of dry parsley instead of fresh.

I whisked all the spices and herbs together with the oil, vinegar and mustard and let it sit for a bit while the pasta and peas were cooking.

It was a winner!