Picnic Lunch: Cold Pasta With Tuna, Capers, Olives & Tomatoes and Fresh Berries & Mint Salad

Posted by Rowena Dumlao - Giardina 2/02/2011

Picnic Lunch: Cold Pasta With Tuna, Capers, Olives & Tomatoes and Fresh Berries & Mint Salad

Cold conchiglie pasta with tuna, capers, olives & tomatoes.

A hastily packed picnic lunch of cold conchiglie pasta with corn kernels, quartered cherry tomatoes, capers, chopped black olives & canned tuna.

The heat of summer calls for fresh & cold food. Not only is it very good for our bodies, but also a relief not to cook in a hot kitchen heightened by the intense heat of an oven or stove. A plate of cold pasta plus a fresh fruit is mainly our diet at home.

There should be a million ways to create cold pasta dishes. One of my favorites is this. It has a superb Mediterranean flavor.

First off, cook the pasta the usual way. Boil the water. Once the water boils, add some rock salt. Then dump the pasta. I measure 100 grams per person (60 grams for a child) if there's no main dish to follow, just a dessert or fruit. Dump 60 - 80 grams if there is a promise of a main dish after. Follow the cooking time recommended at the pasta box. Drain, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil & mix. Leave to cool. Mix all the ingredients when cool. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley. I didn't with this pasta because I didn't have any at home. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil & season with salt.

I didn't give any measured quantities of the ingredients because you are free to adjust the taste. I like my cold pasta tasty so I put a lot of each.

For dessert, some fresh salad of berries & mint is refreshing too. I combined strawberries, raspberries & blackberries in a bowl, added a few chopped fresh mint leaves, about a couple of spoons of white sugar (depends on how sweet you want it), a squeeze of lemon & a dash of white Vermouth. You can substitute the Vermouth with a good limoncello too or use both. If you have kids, like I do, separate a bowl before dousing the berries with alcohol.