Recipe: Gluten-free pasta salad by Susan Hart

This pasta salad is rich and delicious. My family loves it, my friends love it, and I’m sharing the recipe in the hope you and yours are going to love it, too.

It’s great for those end-of-summer pot lucks. Also, most of the ingredients can be kept on hand for an impromptu meal. I recently served the pasta salad at a dinner party with grilled Italian sausages, pickled onions and a Caesar salad. For dessert, I grilled peeled peach halves and topped them with a little mascarpone cheese and some grated mace. Come Italiano!

The Italians, as it turns out, have a high incidence of celiac disease in their population, so they’re helpful to travelers with the condition. The government website is http:/www.celiachia.it/HOME/HomePage.aspx.

Pasta salad senza glutine (without gluten) ingredients:

16 ounces gluten-free rotini pasta, cooked as instructed and drained (I use Tinkyada Pasta Joy found at Raley’s)

1/3 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted

13 ounces sun dried tomato pesto (I use Mezzetta’s sun-dried tomato and basil Anything Spread found at Raley’s)

14 ounces canned artichoke hearts in brine, drained and trimmed

8.5 ounces caned sliced black olives, drained

1 cup chopped fresh basil (1 bunch)

1/3 cup pecorino Romano and extra for garnish

Toss all ingredients together, top with extra pecorino Romano, and serve. If the salad gets a little dry after being refrigerated, add some olive oil and re-toss. Buon Appetito!

The next meeting of Carson City’s Gluten-free Discussion Group will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 14. All are welcome, and there’s no charge. Please email Susan for details.

Susan Hart has been cooking gluten-free for 17 years. She can be reached at glutenfree.hart@gmail.com.