Fascist Pasta Salad

[trystinn]

A perennial favorite in our home, here's my Fascist Pasta Salad

Two boxes Rotini tri-color pasta, cooked
2 Kielbasa sausages, toasted
*enough garlic to be smelled from your driveway
Italian salad dressing
4 sticks of butter
optional: sliced black olives (best if serving cold)

Cook pasta until al dente, drain off water. In a medium sauce pan, melt four sticks of butter. When melted add half a bottle of italian salad dressing, add garlic and italian seasoning. When combined, place off to the side and go outside to stand in your driveway. If you cannot smell the garlic, go back inside and double the amount, continue until you can smell it outdoors.

Mix sauce into pasta, toss well. Add additional Italian seasoning until pasta appears "dirty". Dice kielbasa, and toss in. Go back outside - can you still smell the garlic? If not, add more.

Serve warm or cold, as desired. Garnish with freshly grated cheese, our preference is a four cheese blend. Serve with fresh-baked focaccia for total carb-whore menu. Great with a moderate chianti (too light won't stand up to the garlic, too heavy and it will overpower the kielbasa).

Comments

Sounds Yum

[trystn.livejournal.com]

Seconds please?

Re: Sounds Yum

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Always :) That's why we use two boxes base minimum on any pasta dish around here.

[dana3.livejournal.com]

Have you posted this to Pagan Table?? You really should ... yum!

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

This is where I have to ask - what/where is Pagan Table? :)

[dana3.livejournal.com]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PaganTable

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the recommendation, I just joined!

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

FOUR STICKS of BUTTER??? Puttana! I can hear my arteries hardening!

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Hon, just remember: the human body has been metabolizing butter for milleniums - it knows what to do with it versus something weird like margarine.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Yeah...being on a diet, though, the idea of that much butter just blows my mind. :) I haven't eaten margarine in a long time. It's usually olive or canola oils for me.

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you could substitute quite well with an olive oil and italian dressing combination. A bit of grated cheese on top would be fabulous!

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Yum! Cheese makes everything better. Hardest thing for me to be moderate about, really. *sigh*

I could eat entire wheels of cheese and be happy.

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Me, too. I'm a cheese-aholic.

I remember "Cheese Day" on the West Wing - hubby and I would salivate and go bonkers thinking of all that cheese sitting around waiting to be eaten.

[man-of-snows.livejournal.com]

Margarine is bull-butter. The recipe sounds lovely, and it feeds HOW many?

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Around here, its good for about six servings.

[wild-heart.livejournal.com]

OMG

Sounds delicious if over-the-top on the butter. I'm with you on the garlic quotient, though. There is no such thing as "too much garlic." Null statement.

How exactly do you toast Kielbasa? (Personally, I think I'd take some boneless skinless chicken breasts, marinate them in some of that Italian dressing for an hour, then grill them. Cut into large dice or strips and add to the cooked and dressed pasta.)

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

That would definately work, we love marinated chicken! Half as much butter works fine, the trick is to get the oil fixed in the butter.

Typically, I like my kielbasa to have a crunchy skin, so I cut it up into manageable pieces and toast it in the toaster oven. Gives some much needed crispness to the salad.

[wild-heart.livejournal.com]

Jay likes to slice up kielbasa and parsnips and fry them till crispy in olive oil. He tosses those onto a green salad (loaded with interesting veggies). The combination of hot/crisp/salty/sweet with salad is fantastic.

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

OMG - I will definately have to try that. Josh will eat a salad if its roughly half cheese and half meat.

[wild-heart.livejournal.com]

Well, I had hot Italian sausage in the house, not kielbasa, but I tried a smaller version of your recipe. I also used freshly grated Pecorino Romano.

OMG my stomach hurts. I ate too much. Had to force myself to stop!

Just one question: Why "Fascist"?

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Italian seasoning, Italian herbs, Polish kielbasa. It was a jest Josh made in passing and it just sort of stuck.

[wild-heart.livejournal.com]

Let's not forget some Spanish olives . . .

(Oh yeah, I used Kalamata and huge green olives - sliced - in mine. Also tossed in some cooked broccoli. It was soooooo good!)

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

Sounds wonderful :)

I like my spanish olives plain and right out of the jar.

[wild-heart.livejournal.com]

Greek cracked green olives. That's my version of "crack." I could eat them like peanuts. Kalamatas with sauteed spinach and garlic, served over linguine.

Cream cheese and olive sandwiches!!!

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

I like olives in every shape and form, but prefer them raw and straight up.

For mushrooms, I like them fresh and raw, dipped in melted butter and dusted with freshly grated asiago.