"George Shirley" > wrote in message
...
> Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>> In article
>> >,
>> " > wrote:
>>
>>> I have question about making a pasta salad so to speak. I have had a
>>> pasta salad at places, and there are vegtables mixed in such as
>>> cauliflower, brocolli, carrots, peas and so forth. To make this I
>>> assume you cook the pasta, and then cook the veggies, and mix them
>>> together. What would you use as a binder: olive oil? What else would
>>> you add.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Tom
>>
>> Don't cook those vegetables, Tom. Blanch them for a minute and then
>> plunge into ice water to stop the cooking and to chill them. I don't
>> think of using a "binder" for the salad, but rather a dressing, most
>> often a bottled Italian dressing or a made-up-on-the-fly dressing with
>> oil, vinegar, maybe some herbs, maybe some fresh parsley. Some black
>> pepper, too. And a pinch of sugar. Mix the vegetables with the cooked
>> pasta, add the dressing, and chill for an hour or so. Or serve it at
>> room temperature. Sometimes I prefer the room temp. You can also use a
>> small jar of marinated artichokes and its marinade as part of the
>> dressing component.
>
> Curious minds and all that, is pasta salad some sort of Midwestern
> "thang?" I never heard or saw, or ate, any of it until we neighbors move
> into Texas from the Midwest, somewhere up around southern Canada is where
> they were from and they ate all sorts of weird stuff. I got used to the
> stuff but really don't have a preference for it to this day. But, then, I
> don't like corned beef and cabbage either.

I think it was an 80's thing if you were hip. Kind of like the Jell-O salad
of the time.
Janet