Cold pasta salad regains its dignity

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March 26, 2020

Lesson 35: Cold Pasta Salad

When the days get hot, I want a cold, refreshing meal I can eat straight from the fridge without breaking a proverbial or literal sweat. This is when I reach for a pasta salad.

I know what you’re thinking: “Who still eats pasta salad?” (If the deli section of any grocery store is any indication, A LOT of you.) But I’m not talking about the mayo-glopped macaroni or bow-tie clumps confetti-ed with red peppers and peas.

Instead, I bulk up my favorite kind of kale salad — massaged with an eye-stinging amount of lemon juice, garlic and shallots — with orzo and lots of crisp vegetables to keep the cooling crunch factor at its apex.

The salad gets better as it sits in the fridge, the flavors marrying and mellowing while still retaining their bite. It’s a pasta salad with personality, and it’s much more healthful than anything else you’ll be tempted to eat straight from the fridge.

Kale Pasta Salad With Parmesan and Smoked Almonds

Time 20 minutes

Yields Serves 2 to 4