summer pasta salad.

This super easy pasta salad has ticks all the boxes for a summer picnic or to accompany a barbecue. Fresh? Tick. Colourful? Tick. Satisfying? Tick. I also love it because it is so easy to customise depending on what you have in your fridge- there are no set rules!

serves: 4

prep time: 10 minutes

cook time: 10 minutes

ingredients.

• 270g dry pasta

• 140g cucumber, chopped

• 240g mixed colour cherry tomatoes, halved

• 60g red onion, diced

• 40g rocket

• 140g pearl mozzarella (drained weight)

• 70g sundried tomatoes (drained weight)

• Medium avocado, diced

• ½ lemon

• 1large garlic clove, crushed

• Olive oil

• Salt

• Black pepper

method.

step 1.

Dice/chop all the vegetables as above and mix in a large salad bowl. Boil the pasta (I like to use fusilli) to your liking - I prefer mine on the al dente side for a bit more texture.

step 2.

Once the pasta has been cooked and drain, transfer to a large bowl and mix with all the vegetables. Add the mozzarella pearls. Add the minced garlic and mix well- if you are a big fan of garlic, you can add more than one clove to suit your taste. Squeeze half a lemon over the bowl and add enough olive oil to coat all the pasta. Taste and add more olive oil if needed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.