Two More Summer Salads, Because You Asked

The tale of a sleepaway-camp pasta salad gone terribly wrong (and its comeuppance here), plus a lemony salad with grapes & roasted nuts.

Any time I make a summer pasta salad, I think of the one that nearly felled an entire summer camp.

The name of the camp and its exact location have been changed to protect the innocent (and the guilty). It must have been somewhere 1980 or 1981, near Lake Arrowhead, CA. I was in my third summer, during an era when we called our parents collect from the payphone once a week for a two-minute check-in, sent letters home the camp would stamp and send on our behalf, lived for canteen, where we’d buy the simplest ice cream sandwiches, gently pry them open, then layer in barbecue-flavored potato chips before sealing them back up (don’t knock it till you try it).

Even at that age I was fascinated with food preparation, and I remember lingering by the kitchen pass-through when bussing my bunk’s dishes, then being waved in by the cook to look around. The thing I remember most was the size of the giant Hobart mixer (imagine a KitchenAid on steroids), with a bowl as big as I was and a paddle that looked to me to be the size of an airplane wing. The food was passable to decent, with a marked improvement on Shabbat, when there were fancier cold cuts and good pastries washed down with ice-cold milk between the time prayer services ended (this was an Orthodox camp) and lunch began.

And then, one Shabbat, there was pasta salad.

I feel like I remember it. Very mayonnaisey, with peas and carrots (frozen, obviously) and not much else, maybe pickles, but delicious and sweet in a way I wasn’t familiar with. I was later told that it contained Miracle Whip, which is somewhere between mayo and salad dressing and contains an inordinate amount of sugar. What I wasn’t told was said Whip had traveled in a hot car from Los Angeles, then sat in the sun for a while before being folded into the pasta. I can’t say I was super surprised.

This was the 1970s, when in retrospect all summer camps were like one giant lawsuit waiting to happen. Bad News Bears, summer edition. Let’s just say the pasta salad didn’t end well…or sit well. Remember the pie-eating scene from the book (and subsequent film) from Stephen King’s Stand By Me? This is a family show, so I’ll spare you the details.

Since then pasta salad has always been a bit tainted in my mind, a wisp of fear accompanying its preparation and consumption. And since then the solution for me has been to skip the mayo altogether.

Yes, in this pasta salad recipe below there is zucchini for a second week in a row, but if you’re anything like me it’s overflowing at the market and farmstand, and possibly your doorstep. So I fried them like I learned from my friend Micaela Pavoncella (except I salted them liberally, which draws out the moisture and seasons them beautifully) and I boiled up some radiatore-style pasta, and I carved some cooked corn from the cob, chopped a raft of basil I had in the fridge. I chopped the rest of the red onion I found floating in the back of the produce drawer, squeezed lemon juice and use the oil I fried the zucchini in to dress the salad along with the last of the garlic confit from last week’s shabbat dinner.

When tossed, some of the creamy interiors of the fried zucchini melted into the pasta, the tomatoes lent their seeds and juice to add even more flavor, and I couldn’t resist some parm and basil for perfect antipasti vibes. This one’s a winner, and it wiped my memory clean of that summer camp side dish forever.

Yesterday I also posted a slide of this simple grape and nut salad yesterday, and many people asked for the recipe. Here it is. It couldn’t be simpler. featuring my 4:3:1:1 dressing (those are the ratios; ingredients below!), yet another tray of roasted nuts, grapes because an Adeena salad always needs fruit, and some chopped red endive for extra color and a hint of the bitter. Enjoy this last week of summer before Labor Day. “See” you next weekend. Xoxo

Roasted Zucchini & Corn Pasta Salad

Serves 6

1 ½ pounds zucchini, trimmed and cut into 1/4-inch cubes

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Diamond kosher salt

½ pound radiatore or other spiral pasta

½ cup olive oil

Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons finely chopped jalapeño

½ teaspoon freshly grated black pepper

2 ears corn, steamed, kernels removed

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

½ cup finely shredded parmigiano reggiano cheese

½ cup finely chopped red onion

½ cup chopped basil

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a large bowl toss the zucchini and salt. Let sit for 30 minutes, strain through a colander. then turn out onto a towel-lined sheet pan and pat dry very well. Heat the oil in a very large (at least 12 inch; I used 14, and was able to do it all in one bunch) skillet over medium heat. Make sure to heat the oil well. Add a piece of zucchini, and if it begins to sizzle on contact, you’re ready to go. Add all the zucchini (reserve the towel for the pasta), spreading it out to the edges of the skillet. Fry, not moving, until the zucchini shrinks and appears golden underneath and on the sides, 20 to 25 minutes. Stir the zucchini, cook 5 more minutes (it’s ok if the other side isn’t deep golden), then use a spider or strainer spoon to remove to a plate. Cool the oil in the skillet; don’t discard.

Bring a medium pot of generously salted water to a boil. Cook pasta to al dente; drain, rinse well and drain again. I like to then spread the pasta out on a towel-lined baking sheet to further dry; wet pasta doesn’t like to soak up dressing.

Transfer 1/3 of the cooled olive oil from the skillet to a large salad bowl and whisk with the lemon zest and juice, jalapeño, ½ teaspoon salt, and the pepper. Add the zucchini, pasta, corn, tomatoes, parm, basil, and onion and toss to coat. Serve room temp, or chill overnight to develop flavor.

Lemon-Dressed Greens, Grapes & Roasted Nuts

Serves 6

Nuts:

1 cup assorted mixed raw nuts and seds (I used a combination of walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, and pumpkin seeds)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Salad:

8 cups chopped mixed greens

1 red endive, finely chopped

2/3 cup firm red grapes, halved

¼ thinly sliced red onion

Dressing:

4 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons finely minced shallot

Generous pinches of kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Roast the nuts:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Arrange the nuts on a small rimmed baking sheet, toss with the oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast until fragrant and lightly golden, 12 to 13 minutes. Cool.

Make the dressing:

Combine the oil, lemon juice, honey, mustard, shallot, salt, and pepper in a jar, seal, and shake until creamy, 10 second (or whisk in a bowl for the same amount of time).

Assemble the salad:

Toss the greens, endive, grapes, and onion in a salad bowl with half the dressing. Add the nuts and more dressing as needed. Serve immediately.