When I was young, pasta salad fell into two categories: A creamy concoction in which mayonnaise held together elbow macaroni, vegetables and ham; or a vinaigrette-style salad with tri-color fusilli tossed with cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers.
That was pretty much it — for years.
As I grew up, I was exposed to so many variations of the noodle or pasta salad — cold and warm — that I began to realize that the only limitation on combinations was my life experience and imagination.
I could use any kind of pasta from orzo to ramen to spaetzle. I could add feta, olives and sliced peppers to that orzo; sunflower seeds, scallions and shredded cabbage to the ramen; and toss that spaetzle with diced eggplant, zucchini and fresh basil.
After buying a lovely batch of summer tomatoes at the farmers market, I decided I wanted to find a pasta salad that would do them justice. I came across just the one while leafing through “Double Awesome Chinese Food: Irresistible and Totally Achievable Recipes From Our Chinese-American Kitchen” (Roost Books, 2019) by Andrew, Irene and Margaret Li.
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The summer salad is a study in contrasts. It calls for roasting half of the tomatoes and half of the corn and leaving the rest fresh, resulting in sweet, just browned kernels and warm, soft tomato slices in some bites and fresh, bright tomatoes and corn in others.
Spirals of raw zucchini offer a slightly bitter snap, and chunks of avocado deliver creaminess.
The spunky dressing is made with garlic and ginger for pungency and honey for sweetness. I added a sprinkle of crushed red pepper flakes for a little more bite.
The authors chose to make the salad with Japanese soba noodles, which are made with buckwheat flour and, often, a bit of whole wheat flour, too. They cook quickly with an earthy flavor, offering a sturdy foundation for the summer vegetables and lively dressing.
A few specialty ingredients in the dish, such as black vinegar and toasted sesame seed oil, add great depth of flavor, but if you have to sub in balsamic and a little more olive oil, still go for it.
The cookbook, written by siblings, is filled with recipes served family style, so that is how I served this, even though it was just the two of us. It was too pretty not to put the big platter on the table so we could dig in.
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