The Ivy Pull and a Pasta Veggie Salad

Friday was the town annual Ivy Pull on a trail that leads from the main hotels along the craggy coastline to a small cove like beach. An hour before the actual start time my husband re-read the email about this event and realized that we needed a dish, as there was to be a BBQ and potluck at the end for all that have participated. The week before I remembered reading in the July 2012 edition of bon appetit about one of their fast and easy pasta salads. The salad I chose was their Cold Sesame Noodles with Summer Vegetables made with buckwheat soba noodles. Knowing that I was short on time and soba noodles were not an option I substituted regular spaghetti pasta and made a few other minor tweaks and this is what I came up with. After sitting a couple of hours in the dressing the pasta was very flavorful and still nice and crunchy. Would make this one or one similar to it again.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup unseasoned rice vinegar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 Teaspoon Sriracha (hot chili sauce)
1 cup cilantro leaves (loosely packed)(chopped)
3 scallions, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp white sesame seeds
8 ounces spaghetti pasta
8 cups matchstick -size pieces of mixed summer vegetables. (used zucchini, carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes)

To prepare:

Whisk first four ingredients together in a large bowl, add vegetables. Toss to coat.  Add a sprinkle of salt.

Cook noodles in a large pot of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally, until al dente; drain. Run noodles under cold water to cool them; drain well and add to bowl with vegetables. Add cilantro and scallions. Season with salt to taste. Sprinkle over sesame seeds when ready to serve.

Recipe adapted from bon appetit July 2012 magazine.