Pasta Salad

"All pastas are the same, it's just all different tomato based stuff."

Oh, the urge to slap this man.

There are so many different types of pastas.  Let's first just divide them into two categories, filled and not filled.  With filled we've got tortellini, ravioli, cannelloni, agnolotti.  I absolutely love filled pastas.  Cannelloni used to be my favorite thing in the world.  And pumpkin filled ravioli.  And the cheeses one.  Mmmm, these are best matched with just a simple butter and sage sauce.

Then there's soup pasta.  These are the small ones likes stellini and risoni. I used to absolutely love them as a child.  I vaguely remember my grandmother making delicious fish soup pastas...Oh my grandmother can make everything, everything you'd expect from an Italian grandmother.  I know everyone says their grandmother is the best cook in the world, I don't care what they say, my grandmother is the best cook in the world.



Then there's the rest, we can divide them into different shapes, there are long pastas, tubular pastas, ribbon pastas etc. but I'd like to divide them according to the sauces.  You have the white sauces and the red sauces.  I usually prefer the red sauces with tomatoes.  Even the white ones can be divided into actually creamy sauces and dryer sauces.  Anyway, do your own research, just know that it is incredibly diverse and wonderful.  So no, not all pastas are the same.

This is more of a summer salad (yes, I know it's December in Scotland). There aren't any measurements to this because it really is with whatever you have at hand and the amounts are completely up to your own preference.  Add anything marinated, add some roasted vegetables, add some different cheeses, add some rocket.  Pastas are one of my favorite things to make, it's essentially using whatever I have at hand.  It can be as easy or complicated as you'd like.  This took absolutely no time.  As you can infer from the title, it's just tossing a bunch of ingredients together.  It's healthy and light, perfect for the summer or a well heated home in the winter.

Total time: 15 min Suitable for: a light meal in a warm environment 

Ingredients
Pasta
Olives, sliced
Capers
Ricotta
Tomatoes, diced
Sun-dried tomatoes, diced
Artichokes, diced
Parmesan, freshly grated
Olive oil

Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente.  Drain and rince in cold water.

Toss with all the other ingredients and end with a generous drizzle of olive oil.