green bean pasta salad

yesterday was a very busy day for me, as the morning was spent finishing up editorial and the afternoon i spent with designer tracy learning how to put the paper together. it's going along well, and i'll finish up most of it today.

meanwhile, i came home last night and had nothing to eat, so i made this green bean pasta salad.

i had bought the fresh ingredients, and needed to use them up, anyway.

penne whole wheat pasta this time. i deviated from my favored spiral pasta. i still like it better.

red onion makes anything better.

cook the pasta, add the green beans, then add the red onion and peas at the very end.

it already looked promising at this point.

the dressing is an olive oil/sour cream/dijon mustard concoction. i just realize i forgot to sprinkle it with feta cheese, but it was good nonetheless, and i always hope things are going to turn out good when they make this big of a bowl.... and i forgot to put the terragon in the dressing. :-)

turns out the original recipe says it's supposed to serve two, so i doubled it so i'd have some leftovers, but ended up with more than what i wanted.

here's the recipe:

Green Bean Pasta Salad with Creamy Tarragon Dressing


250 g short pasta (like bowties)
2 large handfuls of green beans, trimmed and sliced into thirds
1/4 cup green peas (fresh or frozen)
2 tablespoons red onion, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons feta cheese, crumbled

Dressing
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 scant teaspoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon fresh tarragon
juice of 1/2 large lemon & zest
salt & pepper to taste

Cook pasta according to package directions. When the pasta is 3 minutes to being al dente, add in the green beans. Three minutes later, give the frozen peas and the red onion a quick dunk in the boiling water and then drain well, rinsing with cold cold water. If you are using fresh peas, don't cook them, but add them instead to the rinsed pasta salad.

Meanwhile, mix up the dressing in a small jar. Pour as much as you need over the salad (you may have some dressing left over) and sprinkle with a bit of crumbled feta cheese, giving everything a toss. Serves 2.