Cooking Tip

Pasta Salad Pointers

• For most pasta salads except Asian types, use small pastas such as penne, fusilli, farfalle, rigatoni, orzo, conchiglie or orecchiette.
• Use whole-grain pasta for high-fiber healthy salads. If you find whole-grain too heavy on its own, mix it half-and-half with the same shaped refined pasta.
• Aside from fresh vegetables and herbs, other add-ins great for salads include drained canned tuna, prosciutto (ham), smoked turkey, shrimp and drained canned beans such as cannellini or even chick peas.
• Rinse pasta you will use for salad under cold running water to remove excess starch and to keep the pieces from sticking together.
• Keep leftover pasta shapes that have similar cooking times together in an airtight container for quick meals.
• If just a small amount of pasta remains in the package, cook all the pasta and use the leftovers in salads.