We love this recipe because it is perfect to bring to social gatherings because it has something for everyone. It is always nice to have a dish with lots of veggies, especially when cruising, to share with other boaters. It also stores well in coolers or in refrigerators, so it is also a great meal to prep before longer passages. You can just take it out and eat with no more cooking or prep to do in the middle of your journey. Plus, all the veggies in the salad are ones that are hardy, and will last for a while on board. And, all the herbs are ones that you can easily grow yourselves, right on your boat! We hope you enjoy it.
Ingredients:
- 1 box of pasta – We’ve found this rotini cooks well with minimal water. We’ve actually figured out how much water to use so we don’t have to drain it. All the water is absorbed into the pasta. This cook some trial and error, but it is worth playing around and writing this down. There is also pasta pronto, which is designed to not need any draining.
- ½ onion – chopped
- handful of fresh basil – we use a large handful 🙂 – chopped. I roll all the leave up together and cut them into fine strips, then turn it and do a cross cut on the strips.
- a bit of fresh oregano – optional – we grow this on your boat garden, so we throw it in for some extra flavor
- 2 jalapenos – we grow ours and they are typically pretty hot, so we de-seed one to decrease the heat and keep one seeded…we still like some spice!
- olive oil (we use Saratoga Springs olive oil, which is delicious!)
- shredded cheddar
- good amount of balsamic – the pasta will absorb this, so you typically have to add a little, stir, add a little, stir…until you are happy with the flavor
- 1 sweet pepper – any color will do! – chopped or cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 can quartered artichoke hearts – cut into bite-sized pieces
- 3 cloves garlic – minced
Directions:
- Boil water
- While water is boiled, start washing, prepping, and chopping the veggies/herbs
- Once water is boiling, put in the entire box of pasta – start timer!
- Continue chopping veggies and herbs
- Once timer goes off, drain pasta (if needed) and sit out to cool
- Continue chopping
- Once you are done prepping and chopping veggies and herbs and pasta is completely cooled, put everything into one big bowl
- Put in olive oil and balsamic to taste, and add black pepper and salt if you’d like
- Let sit until the balsamic and olive oil are absorbed…add more if you’d like!
- When ready to eat, stir in shredded cheddar to the amount you’d like.
- Enjoy on your boat (hopefully watching the sunset or in the middle of a perfect sailing day)