Pasta salad is a staple at picnics and barbecues – and a surprising ingredient has been recommended by a few chefs to take the dish to the next level
As we welcome the sunny days, it’s time to swap those hearty, warm dishes for some delightful al fresco dining. For those who adore pasta like myself, rejoice, because it’s officially pasta salad season.
No matter your favourite pasta shape or dressing choice, if you’re whipping up a mayo-heavy pasta salad, some culinary connoisseurs insist on an extra zing. A handful of food experts have extolled the virtues of pickle juice, hailing it as the ‘perfect’ addition to elevate any pasta salad.
As someone who often indulges in pasta, I’ve noticed that pasta salads can sometimes be drowning in mayonnaise, lacking a break from the richness.
Jessica Randhawa, a recipe developer and writer, shared with Simply Recipes: “A generous splash of pickle juice (usually from dill or bread-and-butter pickles) completely transforms macaroni salad from good to exceptional.”
According to these aficionados, gherkin juice is said to “brighten the salad with subtle acidity and sweetness, balancing the richness of the mayo-based sauce and enhancing all the other flavours”. I’m certainly not disputing the logic behind their suggestion, reports the Express.
After all, a truly harmonious dish achieves its flavour by artfully combining sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami elements. The culinary aficionados at Good Food might be onto something with the sharp, tangy element to complement creamy dishes with its tuna mayo pasta salad recipe.
I strayed from the suggested bio yoghurt in favour of mayonnaise and opted out of adding apple cider vinegar, using gherkin brine instead. The original recipe fails to specify the amount of brine needed, only that it should be ‘just enough’ to counterbalance the mayonnaise’s richness.
Like any resourceful cook, I resorted to eyeballing the amounts or employing Jamie Oliver’s laid-back “dollop of this” or “glug of that” approach. My rough estimate led me to add about two tablespoons of gherkin brine – notably less than the apple cider vinegar recommended by Good Food.
Yet, after a thorough toss, it was evident that the tangy juice hadn’t amalgamated well with the dressing. Subsequently, I went for small doses of brine, trying not to submerge the salad while aiming for a uniform flavour, to no avail.
To my surprise, it took far more than a mere four tablespoons to detect any actual taste of the gherkin juice. This left me questioning whether the brine lacked potency or if the so-called experts had lost their touch.
Sampling the gherkins revealed they were decent but nothing special. Logic would assume that emptying three-quarters of a jar of brine into the mix should have sufficed, right? Well, dear reader, it bore little impact, failing to enliven the pasta salad in the slightest.
I’m curious to see if the addition of apple cider vinegar by Good Food gives the salad the extra kick it needs for a balanced bite. I believe there needs to be more clarity about the potency of the brine in which the gherkins or pickles are stored, as some seem to be more of a muddled pickle-water than a sharp hit of vinegar.
Here’s the recipe I followed, with the added step of “winging it” with the gherkin brine. The balance of the salad is now in your hands.
Tuna Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 250g wholemeal penne
- 240g mayo or bio yogurt
- 2 tsp English mustard powder
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 red onion, finely chopped
- Handful of basil leaves, finely chopped
- 320g tuna in spring water
- 2 red peppers, deseeded and diced
- 340g can sweetcorn, drained
- Gherkin brine
Method
Boil the pasta for ten minutes until al dente, then drain and rinse under cold running water. Drain again. Meanwhile, mix the mayo or yogurt, mustard, olive oil, onion and basil together in a large bowl, then stir in the tuna, red peppers and sweetcorn.
Stir through the pasta and serve in bowls or pack into containers for work or a picnic. Will keep, covered, in the fridge to eat the next day.
Add the gherkin brine in increments to the desired taste.
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