Meat and Pasta Salad

JUL 21 Posted by kuhlfood

Pasta salad is generally not that exciting. When most people think of pasta salad they think of an old
Betty Crocker standbye…Suddenly Salad. Some overcooked, mushy, tri-color spiral pasta drenched in Italian
type dressing. I’d called the spiral pasta rotini, but I’d probably have Furio knocking on my door ready to
rumble if I called it by the traditional name.

I have a confession and it’s not that I’m about to blog about the wonders of Suddenly Salad. I watch PBS from
time to time. Yes, public television. What’s not to like? It’s like a lower quality blend of the Discovery
Channel and the Food Network without commercials. No commercials. That’s bad ass. Yes, sometimes they
do have 30 minutes commercials, but that’s the best part about having cable…a 30 minute commercial? No
thanks I’ll watch one of the other 230 channels that I get.

Anyway…America’s Test Kitchen (they also publish Cook’s magazine) has a show on there that is great. The
host is this nerdy guy that always rocks a comb over, a creepy look, and a bow tie. If I haven’t drawn you in
already then let me continue…they cook recipes 100’s of ways and come up with the best recipe. The best
recipe I’ve ever seen on public TV is their recipe for a pasta salad. It’s legitimately bad ass and is
definitely impressive. It has pepperoni, salami,

pepperoncini’s, mushrooms, and cheese…oh yeah and some pasta. When I first
moved to Minneapolis I brought this salad to a BBQ and everyone thought I bought
it. I had to convince them that I made it. It was sort of like being in prison and on
the first day you throw out your colors to let everyone know what you’re all about.

Enough about prison, creepy guys with comb overs, Furio kicking my ass let’s cut to
 the chase.

Ingredients

Word of warning…this may be the best pasta salad you will ever have, but it will
"What to make some pasta
cost as much as four summers worth of Suddenly Salad.
salad with me?"
1/2 pound of pepperoni
1/2 pound of salami
1 cup Red Wine Vinegar
1/2 cup Olive Oil
6 TB Mayo
1 12oz jar of pepperoncinis chopped into rings (save 4 TB of the juice)
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes
1 pound box of campanelle pasta (or bow tie pasta…I mean farfalle…sorry Furio)
1 pound of white mushrooms
1 cup of shredded provolone
12 ounce jar of roasted red peppers
Basil…it calls for 1 cup of chopped fresh basil, but apparently America’s Test Kitchen has a bigger budget than I do
because that much basil would cost about $10 at my store…use about a TB of dried basil instead.

1. Mix the mayo, vinegar, pepperoncini juice, garlic,

and red pepper flakes. This is twice the amount of
dressing that the recipe calls for. I like to have the
extra because this is better the second day and I like
to add a little more dressing.
2. Bring water to a boil and cook the pasta until al
dente (about a 1-2 minutes before the box tells you
to take it off).
3. Drain the pasta and while the pasta is still hot add
about 1/3 of the dressing to the pasta and let it cool
on a baking sheet. The dressing will soak into the
pasta while it cools.
4. Clean the mushrooms and drop a little oil into the
pan over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms
and 1/4 of the remaining sauce into the pan. Saute
until the mushrooms until most of the liquid has
evaporated and the shrooms are brown and much
smaller. Then try and keep Kuhlwife from eating Looks like a good start to a pasta salad to me
them.

5. Cut the salami and pepperoni into 1/4 inch batons. Put a paper towel on a plate and put the meat on top in a
single layer. Continue to layer the meat and microwave for 2 minutes. This renders the fat off and probably like
soaks 1000 calories into the paper towels.
6. Next, it’s everyone in pool. Add the pasta, the meat, the mushrooms, the red peppers, the basil, the
pepperoncinis and toss. Add salt and pepper if you think you need it. If you’re going to serve immediately then
 add the cheese. If not wait until serving to add the cheese. I think it’s better the next day so I wait (and
sometime forget to add the cheese).

So here’s the recap…

This salad is delicious and looks awesome.

Pepperoncini juice will stain your hands.
Save extra sauce and add the next day if it feels a little dry

This makes a ton of pasta salad…like a lot

1 lb of meat, 1 pound of shrooms, 12 ounces of
pepperoncinis, 12 ounces of red peppers, 8 ounces of
cheese, and 1 pound of pasta. That’s about a 3 to 1
ratio of good stuff to pasta.

These are like crack to Kuhlwife