What do you do when you just made pasta with shrimp and zucchini and you cooked far too many shrimps? Well... you can use the extra shrimp for pasta salad the day after, for example.
Not just the regular pasta salad with regular pasta, though. For this recipe I used rice pasta which I really like to eat because of its special texture. It's quite different from the usual durum wheat stuff because it's slightly gluey but in a very pleasant way. In the past I used to take it with me every time I came back from Italy but now I can find it here in Amsterdam too, lucky me. :)
This is a summer salad because of the green beans and the ripe tomatoes (even though nowadays you can find both 364 days a year...). I used the little pomodori that here in Holland are sold with the dubious commercial name of San Mazzo - dubious because the Dutch clearly do NOT know what mazzo in Italian can mean (bum, bottom, a**), guess they wanted something that sounded like San Marzano, the original name of plum tomatoes, but had no intention of spending a few euros to ask a native speaker if there were any "hidden tricks" in the name they had chosen.
Just like Mitsubishi did, by the way, when they wanted to sell their Pajero in Spanish speaking countries and somebody made them notice that the name had negative associations. I guess that's what you deserve for being a cheap *BLEEP* and thinking you can do it all by yourself without asking a language professional. Believe me, as an ex translator and interpreter I know what I'm talking about and this is still a very sensitive issue for me. ;)
Back to the salad: the fresh note is given by the lime juice. Lots of it. I'm a big lime lover and I tend to overdo it so start with the juice of 1 lime, see if it's not too acid for you and then proceed with the second one if you think you can handle the extra tartness.
The other very Italian taste in this salad besides that of the plum tomatoes is given by the Taggiasche olives from Liguria. They're little, dark purple olives with a very peculiar and unique flavour. Extremely yummy, I find, and if used with moderation - their taste is quite strong - they add a very original note to your dishes.
I usually steam the green beans to keep them nice and al dente.
This salad is much nicer if made a lot in advance so all the flavours can combine properly.
Insalata estiva di pasta ai gamberetti
Serves 3-4
250 gr. short rice pasta (fusilli, penne etc)
200 gr. cooked shrimp
150 gr. steamed green beans
150 gr. plum tomatoes
a couple of spoons of taggiasche olives
juice of 2 limes
2 spring onions
1 big bunch of flat-leaf parsley
olive oil extra vergine
salt and black pepper
Cook the pasta very al dente in salted boiling water. Drain and rinse immediately under the tap with cold water. Set aside in a big bowl and mix with a little olive oil to avoid sticking.
Slice the spring onions, chop the tomatoes and cut the green beans in two.
Finely chop a lot of flat-leaf parsley and add it to the pasta.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the pasta, season with salt and pepper and mix well.
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