Farm Market Pasta Salad
This salad is the perfect salad for celebrating the best of the harvest. It uses vegetables fresh from the farmers market, roasted and tossed with orecchietta pasta and basil drizzled with a fresh lemon balsamic vinaigrette. This pasta salad is versatile and pairs well with any meal, or it can be a meal all on its own!
If you live in the midwest you’ll know what I mean when I say “ya gotta get while the gettin’s good”, and right now the gettin’ is good at the farmers market, but in another week or so it’s going to winding down really fast. I get this panicked feeling this time of year, like this is going to be my last good tomato for eight whole months!! So I buy a whole bushel and make myself sick on them! Or I’m never going to have another peach again!! Insert high pitched scream. The basil is nearly done…full on panic mode…beans, beans, need to get more beans. If you happen to run into me at the farmers market I might look like a crazed vegetable addict. My market basket full to the brim, my kids dragging behind me carrying melons, and pumpkins, and bags and bags of apples in every variety. I’m a vegi/fruit hoarder.
I confess.
I have absolutely no control over my spending at the farmers market. Oh and it’s so hard for me to pass a farmer by…unless they are selling avocados and bananas. Because you see there is nary a farm in Michigan that grows avocados and bananas, this is not local stuff, they think they’re fooling people but they are not fooling this chick.
I was not born yesterday…or the day before for that matter. I can pass them by with a clear conscience.
So the moral of this story is that I often come home with more than enough, and I have to get creative with how I use it all so nothing goes to waste. That’s what I love about this salad! You can use any and all vegetables, the odds and ends from your vegetable drawer, it all works in this salad.
Feel free to make it your own. Just remember that when you roast the vegetables they shrink down. Start with about 8 cups or more of fresh vegetables cut into inch sized chunks.
This sounds like a lot, but once you cut up a couple of peppers, and a zucchini, summer squash, onion and so on before you know it you’ll have a bowl full of vegetables to roast. You can use more vegetables if you want don’t let me hold you back!
Then there is the situation with the sunflowers and every other flower farmer at the market…I want one of each and all 5 buckets of sunflowers please. I love flowers, fresh bright flowers. Kenny are you reading this? hint hint.
Will you visit your farmers market this weekend? What can’t you resist?
Much Luv! Sheila
Farm Market Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound Orecchiette Pasta
- 1 Orange Pepper seeded and cut into medium chunks
- 1 Red Bell Pepper seeded and cut into medium chunks
- 2 small Summer Squash cut in half and sliced into 1/2 inch slices
- 1 Medium Red Onion cut into bite sized chunks
- 2 cups Cherry Tomatoes
- 2 cups Green Beans snipped and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1/4 cup Olive Oil
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Pepper
- 1 cup Feta Cheese
- 1/2 cup Olives minced
- 1/4 cup fresh Basil roughly chopped
Dressing
- 1/3 cup Olive Oil
- juice of 1 Lemon
- 1 clove of Garlic finely minced
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/4 teaspoon Pepper more if you prefer
- 1 heaping teaspoon Dijon Mustard
- 1 tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Honey
Instructions
- Boil Orecchietta pasta until its al dente, drain and allow to cool.
- Cut up all your vegetables into medium to small chunks, place in a bowl and toss with 1/4 cup olive oil and salt and pepper. Spread vegetables on baking sheets, making sure that they are not crowded. Roast in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. Remove and allow to cool.
- When pasta and roasted vegetables are cool you can mix them together in a large bowl with feta cheese, and olives.
- Whisk together the for the dressing. Drizzle over pasta salad and stir to coat. When dressing has been incorporated into the salad sprinkle the basil over the top give salad another quick stir and you are good to go!
I just made this last night and have to say my favorite pasta salad! Thank you. I have been looking for recipes that celebrate the best of Farmer’s Market bounty and this nails it~ to keep gluten free I made with gluten free noodles and added chicken for protein- definitely using again. Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for taking the time to stop by and let me know! I love the addition of chicken and that you were able to make it gluten free, so awesome! XO, Sheila
I made your Farm Market Pasta Salad for dinner tonight and it was possibly the best thing that we have ever had! Thanks so much for sharing it….
You are very welcome! My husbands office loves it when I make this salad for them, it’s gone in minutes. Thanks for stopping by! XO Sheila
Okay, I’m sold! I will be making this salad for my sister and her family this weekend!!!
Oh yeh! score super healthy ; ) you could even use whole wheat pasta!
I don’t want the Farmer’s Market season to end either!! But until then, I want to eat buckets of this pasta salad!! Gorgeous!
I love this salad Sheila! All those roasted veggies tossed together… *siiigh*!! So pretty and colorful!
I just bought sunflowers and veggies last week at the farmer’s market and told Tim we’ve gotta go this week….. several stands told us things would quickly be winding down now. AGGGHHHH!!!! I love the seasons but I so miss the produce in the cold months. PS ~ Your pasta salad looks divine ma’am. š
Thanks so much! I’m hoping to make one last good haul from the farmers market this week….might me slim pickens tho! ; )
Sheila, I’m looking forward to trying your Lemon Balsamic dressing. I don’t have a recipe quite like that. Mmmmm.
I do the same thing!! I bought 20 lb of tomatoes on Wednesday and even though had a busy week, somehow managed to put up 8 quarts of sauce. We got snow yesterday so my guess is our market is going to be pretty bare next week š
Yum yum yum!! Was just at the Farmers Market yesterday. The mums — oh the mums!! All the brilliant fall colors were amazing. I love the mums like you love the sunflowers. It may also be because my daughter calls them “mommas.” š