Cossetta's in down town St Paul has a pasta salad called Penne Chicken Salad. It has chicken, asparagus, red bell peppers, green onions and parsley with a vinaigrette dressing. So I tried to make a copy of it. This is what I came up with what was in my refrigerator. It made a large container of it with 6 oz of dried pasta. Cossetta's charged almost $13 for this size. See photo.
6 oz dried ziti or penne pasta
5 asparagus sticks woody ends snapped off
red onion sliced as much as you like
cucumber diced (I had leftover in my refrigerator)
cherry tomatoes sliced (around 6 whole tomatoes)
parsley fresh chopped maybe 1-2 TBLS
basil fresh 4 leaves chopped
DRESSING
1/3 cup avocado oil
1/8 cup Champaign vinegar (for the tang, you can use other vinegars)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 clove fresh garlic, minced
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 TBL sugar (I used Monkfruit sweetener)
Boil the noodles as directed on the box.
The last 2 minutes of cooking time add in asparagus to the boiling pasta
Drain pasta and asparagus under cold water, then pat dry with a paper towel to remove excess water.
cut up vegetables (tomatoes, cucumber, basil, parsley and onion)
Add vegetables to the cold pasta and asparagus.
Mix together the dressing ingredients and shake to mix
Add enough dressing on pasta and vegetables to coat. you won't use all of it.
store in the refrigerator .
when you go to eat it if you need to add more dressing because the pasta soaked in the dressing you can freshen it up with the leftover pasta.
COSSETTA'S INGREDIENTS IN THEIR PASTA
Penne pasta 6 oz to fit the container
chicken chunks
asparagus
red peppers
green onions
parsley
then a vinaigrette
So you make it how you would like it. I didn't have red bell peppers but I would have rather put them in there instead of tomatoes. it holds up better in the refrigerator.
