It’s a little out of character for me to post more than one recipe in the same week, but the other night, I prepared one of our favorite salads for dinner. Naturally this means that I jumped on the opportunity to shoot some photos of it, in order to share it with you guys. Last summer, Mystic, Connecticut quickly became one of our favorite places to travel with the kids. We made the three hour drive a few times to enjoy the beaches in the area, but attempted to make the most of the trip by venturing back out in the evenings (post naps), to enjoy dinner or a stroll around town. One night we made our way to Stonington and enjoyed a meal by the water at the Dog Watch Cafe. I ordered their chopped pasta salad and instantly fell in love.
The salad was the perfect combination of mixed greens and chopped cavatappi pasta. It was dressed simply in a balsamic vinaigrette, then topped with diced tomato, red onion, crumbled bacon and gorgonzola cheese. Every fresh, salty, creamy bite was like a little piece of heaven. It wasn’t long before I decided that I needed to replicate it at home. This salad makes for a great spring or summertime lunch/dinner. You can easily prepare the pasta and bacon ahead of time and quickly throw all of the ingredients together to have dinner on the table in a flash. Pair it with some fresh baguette and a glass of rose, and my friends, you have the perfect warm weather meal.
- 1/2 pound of cavatappi pasta, cooked al dente and drained
- 1 bag of mixed salad greens
- 1 tomato diced
- 1/2 a small red onion
- 4 slices of bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
- 1/3 of a cup gorgonzola cheese
- your favorite balsamic vinaigrette, to taste
- 1. boil pasta until it is al dente and drain.
- 2. add mixed greens and cooked pasta to a large bowl, and toss with dressing (use your discretion here, it all depends on how "dressed" you like your salads.
- 3. chop pasta and greens with a knife and portion into two large (or 4 small)bowls.
- 4. top with tomato, red onion, bacon, and gorgonzola cheese.
This looks delicious! Perfect summer meal!
This is very funny. I’ve had this dish at the Dog Watch and I was googling to see if I could find something similar. So when I read the recipe and saw that you had been there and recreated it I laughed so hard. Thank you! I can’t wait to make this tonight!
Nancy, that is too funny! I loved that salad so much that I had to recreate it as soon as we got back! Hope you liked it!