Monday, March 28, 2011

Recipe 4: salad as a meal challenge

At this point, my copy of Patricia Wells' new book, Salad As A Meal is all marked up with ripped bits of post-it notes. This is my relatively unorganized way of letting my future self know to "look here for an interesting sounding recipe". The exercise is kinda fun, and kinda dizzying. The orange post-its certainly make the book look like part of a "challenge", as opposed to something I have laying on the kitchen counter for the pretty pictures. Today marks week two of this four week challenge.


For a weekend lunch I tried the Penne Salad with Tuna and Spicy Mustard recipe. I gotta say, it was just okay. Jacob said, "Wow, this is like tuna noodle casserole", and so that's what we called it... all weekend long. I don't really know what tuna noodle casserole tastes like though. I'm pretty sure I ate that dish once. I believe I was at camp Whittle, a YMCA camp in the San Bernadino Mountains in Southern California. If I recall, I liked tuna noodle casserole, but alas, that was long ago, and the memory is not strong. Either way, I like the way the words "Tuna Noodle Casserole" sound, so I ended up saying that a lot over the weekend.
Wells' recipe was quick and simple, incorporating no additional ingredients than those listed in the title. Perhaps with higher quality ingredients this would have been spectacular, but I was pulling from my pantry, and it was something I'll most likely only make once. Having said that, Jacob and I finished the whole thing.


Penne Salad with Tuna and Spicy Mustard

3 comments:

  1. I'm pretty sure the 'tuna noodle casserole' I had growing up didn't look like this dish you made--lucky for you! :-) I like light penne pasta dishes and might try this before the end of the challenge, although I'd probably venture to change it up a bit. Being an herb girl, I'll toss in some dill and use a local Amish spicy champagne dill mustard... At least you stayed true to the recipe. It looks good to me!

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  2. Hi Shawnie. I totally agree about adding something green. I was thinking that it would be nice to wilt some arugula or spinach greens in the warm pasta. I think it would have given it a bit more pop. Anyhow, I stayed true to the recipe. Probably the best thing about this is dish is that it was super fast and I pretty much always have all the ingredients in my pantry.

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  3. I don't think it's authentic Tuna Noodle Casserole unless it involves a can of Cream of [fill in the blank] soup :) I'm thinking black olives would be a nice addition.

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