Pasta salad with buffalo mozzarella
( Insalata di pasta con mozzarella di bufala )

Recipe for pasta salad with buffalo mozzarella

Preparation and cooking

• - How to prepare buffalo mozzarella.
  Cut your buffalo mozzarella into slices some hours before serving.
  Put them in a colander to drain the excess of liquid and chill.
  Bring to room temperature before serving.
  Cube and add to your pasta salad.
• - Prepare pasta sauce.
  Wash basil leaves and pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper.
  Put them apart.
  Pour olive oil in a large bowl.
  Cut anchovies into little pieces and add to olive oil.
  Add chives too.
  Cut artichokes and mushrooms into little pieces and put in the bowl too.
  Wash tomatoes, pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper.
  Halve them and put in the bowl.
  Stir very well with delicacy and put apart.
• - Cook the pasta you've chosen and combine with sauce.
  Cook your pasta in a large kettle of salted water.
  You can make it while you're preparing the sauce or later.
  Drain your pasta very well.
  Transfer it into the bowl.
  Stir.
  Cut the basil leaves into pieces by hand but put apart some of them whole if you want to garnish the dish as you can see in the photo.
  Add basil pieces to your pasta.
  Stir with delicacy.
  Season to taste with salt if necessary.

Just before serving

• - Let your pasta salad rest for almost 30 minutes.
  Add cubed mozzarella, stir with delicacy and eventually season to taste with salt again.
  Your dish is ready!

Note

Tips

• - Choose the kind of short pasta you prefer.
• - Pasta salad with buffalo mozzarella is a delicate dish.
  Use the right amount of the other ingredients not to cover the fantastic taste of this kind of mozzarella.
• - Use good-quality pasta and ripe but firm tomatoes for the best results.
• - You can prepare this pasta salad some hours in advance and chill up to 30 minutes before serving. But remember to add mozzarella just before serving it.
• - Use dried chives if you have not fresh ones.
• - Use pepper if liked.
• - Pasta salad with buffalo mozzarella is a typical cold dish, ideal in summer (June - September)
• - Buffalo mozzarella is a kind of mozzarella cheese made from the milk of the domestic water buffalo and not from cow's milk.

Menu planning

• - Serve this pasta salad in alfresco dinner, in a meal buffet-style, in a barbecue party or in your Sunday lunch.
• - I'm going to suggest you a full menu with this pasta salad whose recipes are linked below.
  Starter: a good pre-dinner cocktail such as Italian spritz with Aperol or Italian spritz with Bitter paired to light finger food
  First course: this pasta salad with buffalo mozzarella
  Second course: roast beef or cold roast in jelly or rabbit salad or chicken salad accompanied by your favorite seasonal side-dish.
  Cake: choose between an homemade ice-cream cake or French summer log, a recipe of mine I often prepare in my special event menus.

Useful links for this recipe

• - Here are the links to suggested recipes for a full menu, Italian-style.
  Italian spritz with Aperol, Italian spritz with Bitter, finger food for starter ideas.
  Roast beef, cold roast in jelly, rabbit salad, chicken salad to choose your second course.
  Homemade ice cream cake, French summer log as examples of desserts.
• - Do you want to know more about Italian pasta? or on artichokes? or interested more on boletus mushrooms, typical ingredient in Italian cuisine?

Healthy eating

• - Note the amount of calories, fat and protein and the combination of its ingredients. This pasta salad can be only one-plate meal if prepared for your family menu. On the contrary if you decide to serve it for a special occasion don't worry about calories, fat ... it's a special event and therefore rare, isn't it?
  Protein are included in this pasta dish and you needn't a second course. Complete your meal with fresh seasonal fruit. If you are still hungry eat some raw seasonal vegetables.
  We remember pasta should be eaten preferably at lunch and the calories eaten at lunch should be 500 - 700 (30 - 35% of energy needs for an adult if his daily needs are about 2000 calories and he correctly divides his calories into 5 micro-meals).
  Here are the doses per head: 60g (2.1 ounces) pasta, 1 anchovy fillet, 1 (if big) or 2 (if little) artichokes in oil, 3 to 4 mushrooms in oil, 60g (2.1 ounces) or more tomatoes, aromatic herbs with no limit and less than 2 teaspoons olive oil.
• - If you want to drink a glass of wine remember you have to add 80-85 calories per 100 ml.
• - We remember you my original home recipes can be made without salt; there is a combination of flavors that substitutes salt.

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Pasta salad with buffalo mozzarella "?

A great dish requires a great wine. You can match a medium-bodied white wine such as Greco di Tufo or Fiano di Avellino (both are wines of Campania - Italy). But you can make another choice: a young red wine.
You can choose the same wines for the menu I suggest above.

Campania is the region that produces buffalo mozzarella and suggested wine. Are you interested in other wines or recipes? follow the link!