I have something against calling a recipe “the best”. Last week I ate at little cafe on Long Island that had on the menu “perfect mashed potatoes and gravy”. Of course I had to get it because that is a huge claim. Was it perfect? Far from it. I had to add extra butter and salt to get to mediocre. And the gravy? From a can. I think calling a dish “the best” or “perfect” can get ones expectations and hopes up.

So here’s a recipe for a really really great pasta salad, which can also be called “whatever you got in the pantry and fridge pasta salad” (see below). It’s a more flavorful take on a pasta salad recipe I’ve been using for years out of Cooking Light Magazine. Maybe I’ll call it “the bhest” and that little “h” in there will be my loophole if anyone contests its quality.

Ingredients:

• Pasta in a cute shape. (I used brown rice vegetable pasta in the photo which was delicious and tasted just like wheat pasta.)
• Large handful of whatever tomato you got, diced and deseeded if you want
• Large handful of fresh basil, chopped however you like
• Few handful of green beans, chopped into one inch pieces
• Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
• One red bell pepper
• Few cloves of garlic, chopped
• One shallot, halved and sliced (you can use a 1/4 of an onion if you want)
• Few glugs of good sherry vinegar*
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Grated hard cheese of your choice

Get a big pot of heavily salted water going for you pasta and cook according to the directions. Throw the green beans in during the last two or three minutes of cooking. Drain pasta and green beans and run under cold water until cool.

While you are making the pasta, you can prep everything else. Put about 1/3 cup of the olive oil in a small pan over low heat. Prep your garlic and shallots and put in pan with olive oil. You want them soft and translucent, but not browned. It will take about five minutes on the stove. Turn off heat and allow it to cool.

Halve and deseed your pepper. Push down and crush each half so they are flat. Put under broiler, skin side up for five to ten minutes or until the skin is black. Remove and allow to cool for a few minutes. Once cool enough to handle, remove the charred skin and dice the peppers.

Throw pasta, green beans, tomatoes, red pepper, basil and olives into a large bowl. Add a few glugs of sherry vinegar to taste (three tablespoons or more, depending on the quality of your vinegar). Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Add your olive oil mixture and toss. Plate and sprinkle grated cheese on. Enjoy!

Some other variations of this can include kidney beans, diced fresh mozzarella, broccoli, julienned carrots, diced salami (or other hard phallic Italian meat), sauteed dark greens and whatever else you got around.

*Sherry vinegar, like basalmic vinegar, can get really expensive and is sold by age. Of course, the older it is, the more costly and more delicious it is. I use an affordable twenty year old. For the average home cook, I don’t think you need anything too aged or too pricey unless you want to impress people.

Pokey says, “Pasta salad is for pansies and women.”