Warm Pasta Salad with Arugula (Rocket), Walnuts and Blue Cheese
A pasta salad that is done in 20 minutes and still tastes like a restaurant dish: cold pasta, arugula (rocket), blue cheese and a warm dressing that is made straight in the pan.
The trick is in step two. The walnuts are toasted with no fat at all, and then the vinegar and oil go into the still-hot pan. The toasted residue from the nuts dissolves into it — and that becomes the dressing. Which is why the salad is called warm: the pasta is cold, the dressing is hot, and the heat melts the cheese just slightly over the pasta.
Ingredients
- 400 g dried caserecce pasta (penne rigate, fusilli or farfalle also work)
- 60 g walnuts (1/2 cup)
- 3 tbsp cider vinegar
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 180 g baby arugula (rocket)
- 3 tbsp chives
- 150 g blue cheese
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Method
- 1
Cook the dried pasta in plenty of boiling salted water until perfectly al dente. Drain it, run it briefly under cold water to stop the cooking and set it aside.
- 2
Roughly chop the walnuts and toast them in a very hot pan without adding any fat. As soon as they start to give off their toasted aroma, take the pan off the heat and carefully pour in the cider vinegar along with the olive oil. Return the pan to a low heat and warm everything together for another 2 minutes — this is where the toasted residue dissolves and becomes the dressing.
- 3
In a large bowl, mix the cooked, cooled pasta with the baby arugula leaves and the chives cut into 2 cm lengths. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
- 4
Cut the blue cheese into small cubes or crumble it with your hands. Add it over the salad along with the warm walnuts and all the aromatic pan contents. Mix gently and serve immediately.