I'm not a fan of pasta salads, so I had pretty low expectations for this Ideas Post selection. However.... I've been eating this creamy goat cheese pasta salad from Love Real Food every day for the last three days, and I can't wait to eat more again tomorrow, so I guess this version has won me over?
Probably because there are more vegetables than pasta in this salad, so it's actually a salad, and the "sauce/dressing" holding all the delicious vegetables and pasta together is simply goat cheese (yum) melted onto the hot pasta, together with a little lemon juice, salt+pepper+chile flake, olive oil, and pasta water to add dimension.
I bought this cookbook right after I moved back to California last summer, but after browsing through the recipes, I didn't feel super inspired I guess. It's been sitting on my cookbook shelf gathering dust since. I think I felt like the recipes were all just more of the same "simple yet healthy" glamorous vegetarian blogger food, and I wanted to make things that felt a little more unique and exciting. Like the spicy Korean noodles that I'm dying to eat again. But there's a place for simple yet healthy glamorous food, right? and I was wrong to discount this cookbook.
Kate's recipe for this creamy goat cheese pasta salad was initially published on Cookie&Kate in 2011, but without the measurements. The salad was good enough to make the cut for her cookbook, where Kate has given measurements (presumably since that's the kind of thing people expect). Feel free to get creative and add a little more or less of things as you like. It's the method that matters more than the specific amounts.
When I made this, I doubled the amount of lemon called for in the original recipe (for a total of 4 tablespoons lemon juice, coming from 2 lemons), and I added the zest of the two lemons as well. That first serving was ultra-lemony and I worried that I'd overdone it... but I'm loving how bright and refreshing the lemon flavor still is two days later, so maybe don't add all the juice from both lemons at once, but keep an extra lemon half on hand for squeezing over your leftovers?
One of the best things about this creamy goat cheese salad is how easy and fast it is to make; you can do all of the (minimal) prep work required while the pasta water is heating and then as the pasta is cooking.
- My single biggest piece of advice for success is this: don't overlook crumbling the goat cheese! You need it to be in small pieces so that it melts quickly and distributes evenly upon addition of the hot cooked pasta (as in, it needs to be much smaller than it is in my photo). [My second piece of advice is: don't forget to reserve some pasta cooking water.]
This salad is a great showcase for the flavors of late summer vegetables: slightly bitter baby arugula, crisp sweet cherry tomatoes, and briny olives. The salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, olive oil and lemon juice provide balance for the creamy goat cheese and cooked pasta. Ready in under 30 minutes, packed with color, heavy on the fresh vegetables, and easily modifiable to suit personal tastes, this is definitely a keeper recipe for me.
Original source: Love Real Food
Creamy Goat Cheese Pasta Salad
Print Pin RateIngredients
- 8 ounces whole-grain fusilli or rotini pasta
- 4 ounces goat cheese crumbled (about ⅔ cup)
- Freshly ground black pepper about 5-10 grinds
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt plus more if needed
- ¼-3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes depending on your spice preference
- zest of one lemon plus more if needed
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice usual amount in one lemon, plus more if needed
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus more if needed
- 5 to 6 ounces baby arugula (or baby bok choy, kale, spinach, etc) 5 to 6 packed cups
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes sliced into thin rounds
- ⅓ cup pitted and thinly sliced Kalamata olives
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of well-salted water to boil. Cook pasta to one minute shy of package instructions for 'al dente' and taste for your desired doneness, cooking a minute longer if desired.
- While the water comes to a boil/the pasta cooks, ready everything you need for the sauce. Weigh (or measure) out the goat cheese and crumble it into a very large bowl. Sprinkle the pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes over the goat cheese crumbles. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil and lemon juice. Wash and dry the baby arugula, slice the cherry tomatoes into rounds (and tomato knife makes a big difference here), and pit then slice the Kalamata olives, setting the prepared vegetables aside in a separate bowl.
- Just before the pasta is done, scoop out a cup of the hot cooking water and set it aside. Drain the pasta quickly into a colander, then immediately drop the piping hot pasta into the large bowl containing the crumbled goat cheese. Toss to combine. The goat cheese will be too thick to coat the noodles properly; now pour ⅓ cup of the hot pasta cooking water plus the olive oil and lemon juice into the bowl to help loosen the sauce, and continue tossing, tossing, tossing, adding another ⅓ cup of pasta water if necessary, until you've formed a creamy sauce that coats the pasta evenly.
- Add the arugula, sliced cherry tomatoes, and sliced olives, toss multiple times to distribute. Taste and adjust as necessary with more olive oil for richness, salt/pepper/red pepper flakes to make the flavors "pop", or lemon juice for acid zing, or pasta water for a wetter sauce.
- Serve immediately. This salad is great at slightly above room temperature (which it will be at this point) but it's also quite good chilled. It will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
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