Every year summer I get an uncontrolled fever to try and reinvent the pasta salad. I always end up with the same formula - a long cooked summer vegetable, topped with cheese - that’s usually it. Or making the truest form of pasta salad, the mayonnaise-soaked macaroni with cubes of cheddar and specks of celery (something I am becoming more sympathetic too as I become more complacent in the summer).
Last year I made the determination that early season tomatoes can be just as good as peak season tomatoes, with some love, vinegar and salt, they can mimic what makes tomato season so great (and it extends it for about a month and a half).
This chicken is a perfect vehicle for the early raw tomato. Chicken, roasted hot and fast and dressed with grated tomato and made saucy by mixing chicken fat with vinegar.
By now, it should be obvious that my taste in food mainly revolves around vinegar. It is the crux of my cooking ability, if it’s sweet - there’s acid, if it’s savory - there’s acid.
It is genuinely, creatively crippling to me as someone who writes recipes, to have to include acid in every single one. I know most people don’t have the taste buds that I do, but in the end these are my recipes, and I am learning to appreciate my own tastes!
At this point in my life, I should be a shareholder in every chip company who makes salt and vinegar chips. I am consistently and honestly putting in the work to be the worlds number one salt and vinegar consumer. Eating salt and vinegar anything is not for the faint, it demands a certain masochistic behavior to be able to consume the amount that I do which in turn explains the taste buds.
Vinegar is the most abundant ingredient in my cabinet. Different small batch vinegars that I love like Tart or from larger craft vinegars like Brightland. Even the local grocery store brand of white distilled vinegar - it’s all there, and it all gets used more than anything else.
A part of my own tastes now includes choosing the funniest option available, and shells are the epitome of humor. I could have easily picked the safe option of rigatoni or the considerably worse decision of penne. No. I want to be funny, I want to live with joy, and shells are joyful. They make me feel good when I cook them and when I eat them. That’s all I need these days.
The point of this salad (if I can call it that?) is to not sit inside. It is simply too hot to be cooking indoors (yes you still have to cook the pasta inside) and you guessed it, this is better the day after, much like most foods in this life.
marinated tomatoes and shells
serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 - 1 ½ lbs. of tomatoes (medium to large tomatoes)
16oz / 1lb. of jumbo shells
¼ - ⅓ cup of red wine vinegar
½ bunch of parsley
Greens for toppings, i.e. arugula, pea shoots, spinach, etc.
For the breadcrumbs
¼ cup of olive oil
1 ½ cups of panko breadcrumbs
3 garlic cloves / sliced or grated
Chili flake to taste
2-3 anchovy filets / chopped (optional)
Instructions
To prep the tomatoes, cut into large chunks and set into a large bowl. Season generously with salt and pepper and cover the red wine vinegar then mix to completely combine. Let sit to marinate for at least 30 minutes, longer the better.
Once the tomatoes have marinated, cook the pasta until completely done (you aren't cooking it anymore after), then drain the pasta.
Toss the hot pasta with a little bit of tomato/vinegar juice and chopped parsley. Mix with the starchy pasta until the sauce thickens.
Plate with the pasta and serve the tomatoes in and around the shells of the tomatoes, top with more of the tomato/vinegar and top with the greens.
To make the breadcrumbs
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium low heat and add in the sliced/grated garlic, chopped anchovies (if using) and chili flakes from cold.
Once the garlic and anchovies start to sizzle, add in the breadcrumbs. Cook the breadcrumbs on medium low heat until it has browned. Immediately remove from the heat and season with salt to taste.
influenced me to have a giant shells summer 🙂↕️🙂↕️🙂↕️