Lazy Summer Evenings
There was a time when cold pasta was anathema in Italian culture on either side of the Atlantic. In the Western Hemisphere there was macaroni salad that inhabited Delicatessen coolers but that was hardly what has now become part of creative cuisine here and there. Pasta salad soon not only entered the main stream, it became de rigueur in many summertime meals.
Attitudes change. People grow. Cultures evolve.
Hot Summer evenings in decades past were uneventful with stagnant air in and out of doors. Soon electric fans came along. Then air conditioning migrated from pharmacies and cinemas into homes where, often, naked men made love to each other. So many things that were not acceptable made their way into everyday life.
What follows is a pasta salad to satisfy the coolest of men following a highly evolved cool Summer's evening entertainment.
Pasta Colonna
500 grams cooked pasta integrale (whole grain) penne or mini rigatoni
200 grams pitted ripe olives in halves (mild cerignole or calamata with more of a bite)
100 grams chopped green onions
200 grams crumpled gorgonzola piccante or ricotta salata (cheeses)
Salt and pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Parsley, minced
Gently toss ingredients. Cover. Refrigerate. Prepare two to three hours prior to serving.
This is the midweek appetizer road that leads to Saturday Beefcake.
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