Caprese Pasta Salad

Gluten Free Caprese Pasta Salad

Just wait until you see how delicious this gluten free Caprese pasta salad is.  Gluten free pastas have certainly come a long way.  There are so many good ones on the market now.  Most of them are pretty tasty at least in warm dishes.  Cold pasta is another story.  Many gluten free pastas still have a tendency to get hard after being refrigerated. This fact is not very conducive to making a good pasta salad.

Barilla gluten free pasta is different.  It doesn’t get hard the way most of the other pastas do. I don’t know why it's different since I don't work for the company.  Who knows what their trade secrets might be but I do know that the pasta is good.

When I first discovered that my leftover refrigerated gluten free barilla had a much nicer texture than what I was used to, I thought … This might just work in a pasta salad. 

And so the Caprese pasta salad was born.  You know it's summertime when the flavors of sweet fresh basil, perfectly ripe tomatoes, and succulent fresh mozzarella dance together on your fork.  

You can't beat the classics.   

What a winning combination.  

I’ll be making this one a lot.  

Caprese Pasta Salad

Prep time: 10 min

Cook time: 10 min

Servings: 8-10

Ingredients

• 12 oz pkg. Barilla gluten free rotini
• ½ cup olive oil divided (¼c & ¼c)
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 1lb fresh mozzarella, cubed
• 1 jar of pitted gaeta or Kalamata olives
• ½ cup fresh basil sliced into ribbons
• 3-4 spring onions chopped
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Video Tutorial: 

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, drain and add to a large bowl.
2. Drizzle with ¼ cup of olive oil, then add some salt and pepper and using a micro-plane, grate in about ½ a clove of garlic then mix it all together to coat the pasta and set it aside. 
3. Add the grape tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, scallions, olives, oregano, the other ¼ cup of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Mix it all together until everything is well combined then after checking to see if it needs additional seasonings, either serve immediately at room temperature or chill it for a few hours to allow all the flavors to marry and serve.