FOODIE WEEKEND - 'Anything Goes' Pasta Salad

Hello, everyone!  Welcome to my Foodie Weekend where I share with you my barely there talent in preparing some great easy recipes that even I can handle! How good is that, heh? ;D  This week, we have Foodie Weekend earlier as I would be on my way to the Seychelles for a short vacation tomorrow (Friday) and would only be back on Tuesday.  

It has been almost a week that I am down with flu.  This is due to last weekend when the whole family were involved in a yard sale at the park and out of all the days in the year, Dubai was blessed by the very rare rain on that day!  Yes, it was raining and we were having a blast in the rain; selling, buying, laughing, getting wet!  And as a result, I ended up with a flu while others escaped.  

Time like this there's nothing more comforting than some nice dish of pasta that is so comforting and this one here is my favorite! It has roasted capsicum, olives, cherry and sun-dried tomatoes and the best part is, you can have it with other endless combination, you decide! Other favorite combinations of my house-hold are sun-dried tomatoes and spinach, tuna and capers, chicken with roasted walnuts and basil and of course the classic tomatoes, olives and parsley. So be creative and this weekend create your own pasta salad or you can try my recipe here :)

'Anything Goes' Pasta Salad

(Tuna, Olives and Roasted Capsicum)

Ingredients (serves 4)

500 gm of pasta (I used penne)

1 large can of tuna in water or olive oil

1 medium red onion diced

3 large capsicum of your choice

1/2 cup of chopped parsley

8 pieces of sun-dried tomatoes quarters

1 cup of cherry tomatoes, halves

1/2 to 1 cup of green olives (up to you)

1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil and a little more for dribbling

1/4 -1/2 teaspoon of garlic paste (up to your taste)

1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper 

Method

How to roast the capsicum

In a 180 degrees C pre-heated oven, roast the capsicum for about 15 minutes or 

until the skin becomes wrinkly. 

Remove from oven and put them in a paper bag and seal.  Leave them in the bag for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, remove from bag and peel the skin by separating it 

from the flesh with your fingers. 

Cut the capsicum open, seeded and slice them into long thin slices.

Other preparation  

Cook the pasta in a pot of salted boiling water until al-dente (check the cooking 

time on the packaging)

Once cooked, rinsed quickly under running tap water to stop the cooking process.

Dribble some extra virgin olive oil and a bit of salt and mix well making sure 

that it is evenly mixed.  Set aside.

Drain the tuna and break it into small pieces and set aside.

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, garlic paste and balsamic vinegar together, set aside.

The final mix

Now, in a big bowl, mixed the pasta with the capsicum, tuna, sun-dried tomatoes, 

cherry tomatoes, onion, olives together with the olive oil and balsamic dressing.

Add salt, pepper to taste and finally throw in the chopped parsley. 

Ok, most of my recipe end with "Serve immediately" but with this recipe, I will have to say let it rest for about an hour or so. It taste a lot better after a while when the flavors of all the ingredients actually merge and made an explosion of fabulous taste in your mouth! Buon Apettito!