I read once in some food snobbery cooking article that a dish made with cold pasta should never be called a salad and furthermore should never be considered good food. If my memory serves, this officious twit, went on to chronicle culinary horrors of a summer food buffet with an assortment of these dishes, and they left wondering what the world of entertaining has come to. Well this soul has never been invited to my holiday gatherings or the ones held by my friends and family, and if he showed up, he might go away hungry. Of course one needs to be careful about keeping food cold, but I wouldn't dream that someone could call my mother's tuna salad, made with mayonnaise, "botulism in a bowl." Just rude.
Personally, one of my favorite things about warm weather is the ease of getting food together in short order, and often with pantry staples. We are a long way out from farmers markets and garden produce, but the quality of canned and frozen vegetables has improved, even in bargain brands, and combined with a nice el dente pasta, some seasonings, oil and vinegar, a beautiful salad can be made in minutes. I just made one with some rainbow rotini noodles, a can of diced tomatoes, some red peppers in a jar, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and generous amounts of garlic powder, Italian seasoning blend, and black pepper. DD#1 made dinner for friends last night and there was leftover cauliflower crumbles so I threw them in as well. Red wine vinegar would have been nicer, but not what I had on hand.
Last weekend I used a box of penne pasta, diced tomatoes, rinsed cannelloni beans, olives, and used two partial bottles of salad dressing. This was hauled to the cabin and went well with still leftover (frozen) from the funeral in March ham and potatoes we ate on a break from cleaning. There were even leftovers that DD#1 took for lunch the next day. My family and friends will be enjoying salads of all kinds, made with anything I can pull out of my refrigerator or pantry this summer. I like the economy, the variety, the nutrition value, and the ease. Those with more refined palates are welcome to join, but keep can keep their opinions to themselves.
Ooh, salads are great for leftovers! Many years ago I stayed en famille with a family in France and was amazed at the things they put in salads - small quantities of cooked veg were used like I'd never seen before. These days they are regulars in my salads. For me the essence of a salad is a variety of small quantities of all sorts of things to give contrasts of flavour, colour and texture. Yum-mee!
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