Pasta Salad Recipe: Thai Inspired Pasta Salad The Flavors Of Southeast Asia

Pasta Salad Recipe

[caption id="attachment_1513" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Thai Inspired Pasta Salad-Click To Enlarge"][/caption]
Hi everyone! I know I have been gone for about two or three weeks now but I have been extremely busy working on my blog here at EZ Cooking. I was having some functionality issues with the site but now everything is back to normal and I am back to making cooking videos for your gastronomic enjoyment.

Here in Las Vegas, Nevada where I live the summer is winding down and the temperatures about finally below 100 degrees. The heat this year has been as high as 115 degrees which in nice and balmy to say the least! We are now in our monsoon season and last night starting at about 3:30AM we had a monster storm pass through. Lots of rain and thunder and lightning. So what this is telling us here in Vegas is that the summer is coming to a close.

So as is my policy this year as in every year I am having an end of summer get together with some friends of mine. Each year for the past few years we do this. We get together and eat and eat and eat and have a good time and then eventually the drinks catch up to us and we get pretty well trashed. Not to worry folks! I am the keeper of the keys and nobody gets out until they have sobered up and that usually means that my buds are sleeping over. They better think twice if they think I am going to cook them breakfast! If anything they are going to have to take me out for breakfast!

So we all planned to have our party yesterday 9/12/2011. Then I get the same thing that I have gotten for the last few years. "Whatcha gonna make Dick! I keep on telling them to call me Richard as Dick is just so old fashioned. I told them I am not going to make anything! I was like: "This year you slobs make something and I will  make a nice side dish to go with whatever you make." They all know I cook like religion and they all bitched and moaned about it but, in the end they agreed. I told them whatever you boneheads make it better not end up looking like something that was cooked by little green men from Mars! Believe me some of these guys don't know how to boil water let alone cook something. If it wasn't for fast food and deli counters and me most of these yobs would be dead!

So the side dish that I decided to make for this shindig is a Thai inspired pasta salad recipe. This cold pasta salad recipe is not your typical pasta salad made with mayo or mustard and relish with celery and onion or the kind of pasta salad recipes from the deli counter at the local market which is just pasta, tomato, mozzarella cheese and salami with spices and an oil and vinegar dressing. YAWN! To pedestrian for me! We here are foodies and that means that we think a little outside the box and in many cases it means we think way out of the box at times as well.

I love the flavors of Thai cuisine and Vietnamese cuisine as well and I thought these both subtle and strong flavors would make a really great pasta salad recipe! This is not Thai noodle salad as that is a totally separate dish on it's own. This is Thai Pasta salad and It is both refreshing and bracing. It encompasses the flavors of Thailand. This pasta salad recipe will be hot, sweet, salty and sour. The ingredients in this pasta salad have been chopped into very small pieces as some of the flavors can be very strong. I like strong flavors so if you make this recipe you might need to adjust the amounts of ingredients slightly to suit your needs. I hope you enjoy this pasta salad recipe.

I generally like to make the Thai Pasta Salad Dressing before I make the pasta salad recipe itself to allow the flavors of the dressing to marry before being poured over the pasta salad prior to serving.

Nuoc Cham base Ingredients:
2-4 Thai bird chilies depending on heat tolerance seeded and sliced as thin as possible.
2 Clove garlic chopped as finely as possible.
1 Inch piece of ginger peeled and chopped as finely as possible.
1-2 Tbsp of either white or brown sugar.
2 Tbsp lime juice.

****This is the Nuoc Cham base. Mix all these ingredients in a bowl and let stand for 1 to 2 hours to allow flavors to marry. Then when the flavors of this base have married it will be time to make the Nuoc Cham.

To the Nouc Cham Base add:
1/3 Cup fish sauce.
1/3 Cup rice vinegar.
2 Tbsp sesame oil.
Stir or whisk this mixture very well in preparation for pouring on the pasta salad.

Ingredients:
1 Lb Penne Rigate pasta. You can also use Rigatoni, Farfalle, Casarecci, Cellentani, or Conchiglie. All will work!
1 Cup Thai basil. 1/2 cup chopped fine the other 1/2 cup whole leaves for texture and eye appeal.
1 Bunch scallions finely sliced. Slice as thin as you can get it. Slice either straight or on the bias.
1/2 to 1 Cup depending on taste of Cilantro finely chopped.
4-6 Roma tomatoes seeded and diced into small pieces.
8-10 Cloves of garlic finely chopped. Figure 2 cloves of garlic person or more depending on tastes.
4-6 Thai bird chilies seeded and finely chopped. More or less depending on your tolerance for hot chilies.
2-3 Inch chunk of fresh ginger peeled and chopped as fine as possible.
1/2 Stalk Lemongrass. Peel the green bark off and either slice as finely as possible or chop as finely as possible.
Zest of 2 limes Kaffir or regular limes will do.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Large mixing bowl.

Method:
1. Cook pasta and then strain and put in cold water to stop the cooking and remove excess starch then strain again and put in bowl to have other ingredients put into the pasta salad.

2. Take your finely sliced scallions and mix into the pasta well.
3. Take your Thai basil and mix the finely chopped basil into the pasta salad.
4. Now take the whole Thai basil leaves and mix into the pasta.
5. Add Cilantro into the bowl with the pasta salad and mix it in well.
6. Add diced Roma tomatoes into the bowl with the pasta salad.
7. Now add in your finely chopped garlic to the pasta salad recipe.
8. Add your finely chopped Thai chilies to the pasta salad mixture.
9. Now add your finely chopped ginger to the pasta salad mixture.
10. Add your finely chopped lemongrass to the pasta salad recipe.
11. Add the zest of 2 limes to the pasta salad.
12. Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can choose to just all all the ingredients to the pasta salad recipe at one time and mix it all up together by hand and then add your Nuoc Cham dressing. I prefer to mix in one ingredient at a time to the pasta salad and mix in each ingredient separately. Some of the flavors in this recipe can be rather strong so you will need to taste and adjust according to your taste requirements. Enjoy!