When it comes to potluck parties, pasta salad makes a lot of sense. It's sturdy and portable and has enough starch to fill the bellies of my gluten loving friends. However, a pasta salad can also be a bit boring. So I say, don't let it. Look around for inspiration and put together a salad that inspires you. This Fresh Tomato and Charred Corn Pasta Salad is quite a plateful. Sweet and juicy tomatoes are the star here. In Los Angeles end-of-summer tomatoes burst with flavor and need little embellishment to create a spectacular dish. However, I have a wondering eye and I have to admit that sweet corn often catches that eye and demands attention too. I've dressed these beauties with a special red-wine oregano vinaigrette that has colorful hue of its own.
Fresh Tomato and Charred Corn Pasta Salad
I guess you could say that the colors of the season inspired this pasta salad. This is the time of year when North American Farmers Markets are literally pumped up with colorful produce. It seems all the brightest vegetal hues make themselves prominent during these last throes of a long hot summer. Green herbs, crimson tomatoes and golden corn embellish the stalls at my Farmers Market with all the flair of a Hello Kitty Lunch Box. So I threw a few of these eye catching colors into a bowl and made an end-of-summer Fresh Tomato and Charred Corn Pasta Salad that is anything but boring.
Which is a good thing. We've been beaten down by some brutal heat here in Hollywood this past few weeks, and honestly I'm sick of the heat. So when a pool party invite came my way I opted for a cool pasta salad full of warm colors.
I know I sound like a wimp, but when I signed on to the whole 'LA lifestyle' thing it was the 70-something and sunny part that really sold me. I'd lived in Santa Barbara for several years before I moved to Los Angeles. I moved here because Santa Barbara can be way too cold (all year-long). Not snowstorm cold, but still it's chilly and gray– a lot.
I know it sounds like I'm whining. Santa Barbara is too cold. Los Angeles is too hot (blah, blah, blah). So instead of opening my mouth to complain about the weather I should probably stick a forkful of Fresh Tomato and Charred Corn Pasta Salad in and shut up. Cooler days are ahead. I know they are. GREG
Fresh Tomato and Charred Corn Pasta Salad
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