Number Twelve: Mortadella Pasta Salad

This recipe comes from Express, and I chose it because I thought it seemed nice and summery - perfect for this amazing weather we've been having lately!

The recipe calls for mortadella cut into cubes, but we could only find mortadella in very fine slices, so we opted for something reasonably similar - pork luncheon meat. I'M SORRY - I know it is therefore a pork luncheon meat pasta salad and not a mortadella pasta salad, but I'm going to put mortadella in the title, as that is what it is supposed to be, and therefore what you should do.

One last thing - the dressing quantities below have been doubled from the original ones, as I felt our salad didn't have quite enough flavour. However if you don't want too much then feel free to halve it again.


Ingredients

250g fusilli (we used wholemeal)
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp Maldon salt or 1 tsp table salt
1 tsp mild German mustard or similar
1 thick slice (approx 150g) mortadella, diced into 5mm squares
1 x 20g pack curly parsley, finely chopped (discard the stems)
25g parmesan flakes (plus extra to serve if you wish)
salt and pepper to taste


Method

1. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, and cook the pasta according to pack instructions.

2. Meanwhile, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and mustard to make the dressing.

3. When the pasta is ready, drain well and put in a large bowl. Pour over the dressing and mix well. I suggest maybe reserving some dressing to add when serving. Leave to cool.

4. When cool, stir in the mortadella, parsley and parmesan. Check the seasoning.



It is now ready to eat!! I served it with shredded lettuce and olives, but it would also be great picnic food!

Thanks for reading!!