Goat Cheese & Arugula Pasta Salad

Torey and I met our freshman year at Clemson. Torey has always had such a powerful impact on me and has been such a good friend over the years. She is a strong, loyal woman with a good heart and boy oh boy, she can cook! One thing we always loved to do together was eat. A fond memory was walking on the hall to see Barefoot Contessa on her TV. She was always watching Ina in between classes.

Being freshman, you don't have very much access to the resources needed to cook. There was a kitchen on the first floor of our dorm for anyone to use, which no one did, except Torey! She would host little happy hours and Christmas parties and cook up a feast. She was an early influence for me. We have very similar palates and both truly enjoy the art of cooking.

Torey, her husband, Todd and their sweet baby girl, Evie came down for a visit this summer and Torey cooked up an amazing meal including this pasta salad recipe I am going to share.

I have craved this pasta salad constantly since she made it for me. I have made it on three other occasions in the span of two months. The freshness of this pasta salad is something I cannot describe. Between the greens, heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil and lemony dressing- this is all about the raw, natural ingredients. I hope you enjoy this pasta salad as much as I do!

Ingredients for the pasta salad, take note of the size of the basil leaves (left)

Could these heirloom tomatoes be any more gorgeous?!

    

                                                   Finished product with the dressing!

 

Most recently I made this dish at supper club! My friends and I have a supper club that we have been doing for the last couple of years. We get together about two-three times a month and rotate who hosts at their home. Whoever hosts cooks the main part of the meal, and the other two couples bring along sides and/or appetizers. Stefanie hosted this week and she and her husband, Tradd made Lowcountry Boil. The way we cook it down here in Charleston is with shrimp, sausage, potatoes and corn with Old Bay Seasoning- yum! Will and I brought the goat cheese and arugula pasta salad, and Lara and Jonathan provided the fresh caught shrimp from a recent shrimping trip! Stefanie set up their outside table beautifully and it was a great night as always. Pass the vino!

Stefanie, Lara and I

Ingredients:

1 bag of Arugula
4-6 oz of chevre goat cheese***
16 oz heirloom cherry tomatoes
16 oz fusilli pasta (spiral) ***
Handful (about 1 cup) of large basil leaves

Dressing Ingredients:

1/4 cup of olive oil
3 tbsp of red wine vinegar
2 small or 1.5 large lemons, juiced
1/2 cup of parsley
2 cloves of garlic
salt + pepper

Directions:

1. Place a pot of water on the stove, once boiling, add the pasta and cook to al dente, about 15 minutes. Rinse under cold water. Set aside

2. Preferably with a immersion hand blender, blend together the ingredients for the dressing (olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, parsley, garlic, S+P) and then place in the refrigerator.

3. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and combine with the cooked pasta (which should be cooled by now)

4. Julienne the large basil leaves and add to the pasta mixture

5. Add in the goat cheese and finally the dressing, thoroughly mixing all of the ingredients to evenly distribute the cheese and dressing

***If you use the chevre goat cheese, it is soft enough to melt in with the dressing. The crumbled goat cheese will maintain its "clumps". I personally prefer the chevre goat cheese :)

***Use less pasta if you would like more of a salad versus pasta salad

ENJOY!



Adapted from a Southern Living Recipe that could not be found online
Of note, they used blue cheese in their recipe