Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Fun with Food: pink pasta

OK, now I'm on a playful pasta roll. How about if you used beets to dye pasta pink?

Easy-peasy, as Jamie Oliver would say. The result is this pasta salad. (I took the photo before I tossed all the ingredients so you'd get the full impact of the pinkness.)

Rosy Pasta Salad
This serves 6 as a side dish, but it could serve 4 as a main dish if you threw in some goat cheese, feta cheese, diced ham or shredded cooked chicken or turkey.

10 ounces linguine, broken into thirds
2 medium beets (about 3/4 pound), peeled and cut into matchsticks
1 cup frozen green peas
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 large carrots, shredded (2 cups)

1. In a medium pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta according to package directions. Add the beets for the last 5 minutes of cooking.
2. Meanwhile, place the peas in a colander. When the pasta is done, drain over the peas. Transfer the pasta and vegetables to a serving bowl and toss with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Let cool to lukewarm.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining 3 tablespoons oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper.
4. Add the dressing to the bowl along with the carrots and toss well. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

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