Time for a coffee

I do like a nice pasta salad, especially as it can be eaten instead of bread and adds some substance to a salad based meal.

The problem I have with some you can buy is that they are either too salty or too wet! So where possible I try and make my own.

This is a very simple recipe and you can adjust quantities to taste, how much you want, how much you have in the fridge.

Cook some pasta.

You can use any pasta, but have been using and prefer De Cecco’s Fusilli.

While the pasta is cooking, in a frying pan add some olive oil and then add onions and red pepper. After that has cooked for a while add some mushrooms.

Ensure that they are cooked through, add some freshly chopped parsley and turn off the heat.

Now you could add the pepper and mushrooms raw, but I prefer to have them cooked.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain and then to stop it cooking further and to cool it down rinse well with cold water.

Put the cooked pasta in a bowl, add a splash of olive oil for flavour and to stop it sticking. Note always add oil to cooked and drained pasta to stop it sticking. Adding it the boiling water does not do this as the oil floats on the top of the water.

To the cooked pasta add some mayonnaise and some creme frache.

Then add the cooked mixture.

Stir with a spoon until the rice and cooked mixture is evenly coated. As with a lot of salads though you could serve this straight away, it will improve if you leave it in the fridge for a few hours.

Excellent.