Sometimes you forget things you own when you haven’t used them in awhile. When looking for inspiration for dinner this weekend I decided to pick up a 1968 cookbook I own called “The Art of Salad Making” by Carol Truax. I love old cookbooks and old interior design books.
This book is written like a novel. Full of prose and absolutely no pictures. To be honest, to look at it you might think it is a novel. It is chock-full of salad and salad dressing recipes. Seriously, everything is in here; platter salads, poultry and meat salads, molded salads, German salads, South American salads, Russian salads, etc, etc. It’s amazing. My mind started to think beyond dinner – I was thinking of the upcoming Canada Day long weekend and a salad to “bring along” to the various BBQ’s we’ll be attending. I landed on the pasta salad page, because my family loves this dish…and I am always looking for a new recipe. The question was, could a recipe from the 60’s hold up?
Macaroni Salad Platter
(The Art of Salad Making by Carol Truax)
8 ounces (300g) of pasta, elbows or bowties
1/4 cup *French Dressing (see recipe below)
1 cup fresh peas, shelled or frozen peas heated through
1 cup corn fresh or frozen heated through
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp prepared mustard
lettuce
* French Dressing
1/3 cup wine or cider vinegar
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
2/3 cup olive oil
For the dressing mix vinegar, salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in the olive oil.
1. cook the pasta, following the package instructions. drain, cool and put in a large bowl.
2. drizzle French Dressing on pasta and toss
3. stir in peas and corn
4. in large measuring cup mix mayonnaise, sour cream and mustard. fold into pasta.
Here’s where the salad gets fancy
5. spoon portion of salad into small bowl or mold, pack down with the back of a spoon.
6. chill
7. unmold onto bed of lettuce
Deliciously old skool, 60’s era pasta salad! I did attempt molding and unmolding the salad…but it didn’t really work for me. I think if you want this to turn out properly you would need to use a smaller pasta. The macaroni would work better as it would compact more. Either way, the salad was a big hit…my kids ate it up! Typically I enjoy a vinaigrette-style pasta salad – but this one was surprisingly light. I will be making this yummy salad and bringing it along to a big family BBQ next weekend.
KitchenCounterChronicles says
Thanks for stopping by KB…I just linked up over at Simply Delish!
Sarah says
Oh my goodness. It’s one in the morning, and I should be going to bed, but instead I’m looking at your delicious food and my stomach is grumbling – because, well, there’s NOTHING better than pasta salad! I (surprisingly!) have all the ingredients for this, and will totally be making it in the morning!
KitchenCounterChronicles says
Pasta salad for breakfast…okay! Hope you like it Sarah. Thanks for stopping by.