Old Skool Pasta Salad

Sometimes you forget things you own when you haven't used them in a while. When looking for inspiration for dinner this weekend I decided to pick up a 1968 cookbook I own called "The Art of Salad Making" by Carol Truax. I love old cookbooks and old interior design books.

This book is written like a novel. Full of prose and absolutely no pictures. To be honest, to look at it you might think it is a novel. It is chock-full of salad and salad dressing recipes. Seriously, everything is in here; platter salads, poultry and meat salads, molded salads, German salads, South American salads, Russian salads, etc, etc. It's amazing. My mind started to think beyond dinner - I was thinking of the upcoming Canada Day long weekend and a salad to "bring along" to the various BBQs we'll be attending. I landed on the pasta salad page because my family loves this dish...and I am always looking for a new recipe. The question was, could a recipe from the 60's hold up?

Macaroni Salad Platter

(The Art of Salad Making by Carol Truax)

8 ounces (300g) of pasta, elbows or bowties
¼ cup *French Dressing (see recipe below)
1 cup fresh peas, shelled or frozen peas heated through
1 cup corn fresh or frozen heated through
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon prepared mustard

French Dressing

⅓ cup wine or cider vinegar
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
⅔ cup olive oil

For the dressing mix vinegar, salt, and pepper. Slowly whisk in the olive oil.

1. cook the pasta, following the package instructions. drain, cool, and put in a large bowl.

2. drizzle French Dressing on pasta and toss

3. stir in peas and corn

4. in a large measuring cup mix mayonnaise, sour cream, and mustard. fold into pasta.

Here's where the salad gets fancy

5. spoon a portion of salad into a small bowl or mold, and pack it down with the back of a spoon.

6. chill in the bowl

7. unmold onto a bed of lettuce

Deliciously old skool, 60's era pasta salad! I did attempt molding and unmolding the salad...but it didn't really work for me. I think if you want this to turn out properly you would need to use a smaller pasta. The macaroni would work better as it would compact more. Either way, the salad was a big hit...my kids ate it up! Typically I enjoy a vinaigrette-style pasta salad - but this one was surprisingly light. I will be making this yummy salad and bringing it along to a big family BBQ next weekend.

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