Time for cold pasta salad

It's that time of year. Grilling, fresh corn on the cob and of course, cold pasta salad!

I love pasta salad when other people make it. I was begging my husband a week ago to call a neighbor and see if she would take pity on a very pregnant woman and make a batch of her yummy pasta salad.

I have tried numerous recipes and they just never seem to turn out as tasty when I make it. So I found this recipe for an easy simple pasta salad and decided to try it. I must say, it was delicious! It is very light and the perfect accompaniment to just about anything from a grilled hamburger to turkey sandwich.

The recipe is one of Jamie Oliver's from the Naked Chef. I halved the recipe, used slightly larger size shell shaped pasta, substituted grape tomatoes for the cherry tomatoes and used dried basil instead of fresh (I couldn't find any at my store.)

Ingredients:

310g/11oz small shell-shaped pasta
3 cloves of garlic
9oz yellow cherry tomatoes
9oz red cherry tomatoes
1 handful of black olives, pitted
2 tablespoons fresh chives
1 handful of fresh basil
½ a cucumber
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar, or to taste
7 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Throw in the pasta and cloves of garlic, boil until al dente, drain and run under cold water to cool. Put the garlic to one side to use for the dressing. Put the pasta into a bowl. Chop the tomatoes, olives, chives, basil and cucumber into pieces about half the size of the pasta and add to the bowl. Squash the garlic cloves out of their skins and mush in a pestle and mortar. Add the vinegar, oil and seasoning. Drizzle this over the salad, adding a little more seasoning to taste.

Enjoy!