PASTA SALADS YOU'LL LOVE 4 WAYS (Perfect for Potlucks)

It is December and you're probably freaking out because you've got tons of invitations to go to dinner parties or maybe you're hosting a lot of your friends and family at home. This video is for you if you're looking for dishes to make ahead of time. We're talking about maybe 48 hours ahead and that keep really well and they can bring to different parties. We're talking about pasta salads. Today I'm going to show you how to make four different kinds of pasta salads from something very traditional with a very heavy mayonnaise based sauce to some more experimental dishes. You're going to love absolutely all of them. They're really quick, really simple to make, can be made with ingredients you can find absolutely anywhere and they will be the star or the side dishes of the night. This is such a beautiful, bright, light dish. I'm using the Ziti from Ideal Gourmet. I just thought it'd be perfect with kind of like this light lemony traditional salad dressing with a little bit of cherry tomatoes and lettuce. It doesn't look like your regular holiday pasta salad but it's a nice light addition to your cooking roster. For all these dishes, make sure to salt your water really well and bring it to a boil. Mix some olive oil, lemon zest, and juice. Mustard, black pepper, and salt. This is a really versatile vinaigrette. Toss in your chilled, cooked Ziti. Chop in some lettuce, green peppers, and cherry tomatoes. Let's give this a try. A little bit of everything. So this is as close to a salad as you can get with pasta salad. And by salad, I just mean like a really like simple green salad. Nothing special with the kept it really kind of bare. It works really well, especially if you're in a country that's hot like the Philippines. You want something that's nice and light. This next one's kind of inspired by that crispy, chopped chicken salad that California Pizza Kitchen used to make, which was one of my favorite things that they made. It was a very racist, called oriental dressing, I think, whatever that means. But it's kind of like this pan-Asian dressing that's sweet, soy, umami, has all those notes and flavors. And they would have these crispy wontons that were absolutely beautiful. So we kind of recreated those here. And it's a really simple salad to put together. Just brings a lot of different flavor to your regular holiday macaroni salad. This is really quick. Cook your fusilli. Pan sear two seasoned chicken breasts. Mix together some olive oil, sugar, rice wine, garlic, and ginger. Crush some roasted peanuts. Mix your colored fusilli with your dressing, spring onions, and canned mandarin slices. Once your chicken is done cooking, rest and then cut. Finish with your peanuts, crispy wontons, and sesame seeds. I decided to use the Ideal Gourmet fusilli tricolor just because it brings a lot of color to the dish. There's a lot of brown happening, so I thought it'd be cool to have some fusilli that's on the orange side, on the green side. And that shape is just perfect for anything with any sauces that are slightly thicker because then they get caught in those ridges and you really get a flavorful bite each time. Give it a try. Again, none of these are heavy, which is really nice. You're so used to like heavy mayonnaise salads. These have texture, flavor, acidity, sweetness, balance. Everything you want in a salad. Pesto pasta salads are nothing new. They have great flavor, lots of herbs. You can use whatever herbs you have left in your fridge or in your pantry. Mix that up with whatever nuts that you might have as well and just use different ingredients to put your own spin to it, whether it's sugar or some corn or some avocados like we're doing today. It's a very fresh, light pasta that is actually great not just as a starter but also as a side for things like steak or fish. For our pesto pasta salad, we are using some penne rigate, which again has a really nice tubular shape, which allows the pesto to kind of dig itself in there. Sometimes you might find a kernel of corn in there as well, which is really nice and gives you that sweetness that you might be looking for. Pulse together some salt, sugar, basil, cashew nuts, and olive oil. Yes, I put sugar because I feel like our basil isn't sweet enough. Grate in some parmesan cheese, cooked corn, cubed avocados, and your cooled penne rigate. Let's give this a try. I mean, who doesn't love a pesto? And when it's cold, it doesn't bother me. I think it actually works really well as well. Pesto is great with any grilled vegetables, so if you have grilled vegetables, add that in here. Pesto is actually a great sauce for any leftovers that you might have and just toss everything together. That paired with the creaminess of the avocado and the sweetness of the corn just really works. If you're looking for a more classic-looking dish, aka heavy on the mayo, this is how I would do it to switch things up this year. Start by boiling your shrimp until cooked. This is usually quite quick, about three minutes. Mix some mayonnaise, Worcester sauce, Tabasco, lemon juice, cubed cucumbers, salt, and pepper. Chopped lettuce and your cooked and cooled elbow macaroni. This actually reminds me of my childhood, and it just looks extremely comforting. I mean, who doesn't love... Actually, a lot of people don't like mayonnaise, but I am a huge fan. Perfectly poached prawns. Just that undertone of spice. You can definitely add more chili flakes and stuff if you want. You can add any other type of vegetable too, or even texture like those wonton crisps that we made. So good. Thanks for watching that video. Make sure to catch all the content that we've been posting in November and all the coming videos that we'll be posting in December as well that will hopefully help you through all your holiday needs. Make sure to follow us on Instagram. We're at Feature Media, and I'll see everyone soon. Peace out.