Every once in a while we try a new recipe that sounds fantastic and turns out to be a total clunker. So it was one evening recently. I'd pulled a recipe off of Foodbuzz for a shrimp pasta dish. It had shrimp, tomato paste, white wine, lemon, cheese, garlic... What could go wrong with that? Well, let me tell you - lemon. No, LEMON. That flavor just plain took over. We couldn't taste anything else. Connie assumed I'd toss the whole mess. But, not on your life was I going to toss all that shrimp. And, the pasta was perfectly usable. Into a colander it all went. Once the spray setting on the faucet got done I had pasta, shrimp and a bit of spinach, some sun dried tomatoes and cheese left.
The next morning I packed up that stuff with the extra pasta I'd cooked (intending it to be either for lunch or dinner the next day,) green olives, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, more sun dried tomatoes, fresh spinach, cheddar cheese, and some marinated ripe olives.
Lunch time at the office and I had a table full of goodies. Spaghetti salad it was. It wasn't a five - on our scale of one to five. It wasn't even a four. But, it made a very good lunch and used up something that would've gotten tossed. Keep in mind you can pretty much put anything in this. These ingredients just happened to be what I had on hand.
Spaghetti Salad
Ingredients:
1/2 lb cooked whole grain spaghetti
cooked shrimp
1 can artichoke hearts
hearts of palm
pimento stuffed green olives
ripe olives
fresh spinach
cheddar or swiss cheese
sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
Italian dressing
Directions:
Chop everything but the spaghetti. Cut the spaghetti into smaller pieces since twirling the pasta with a salad isnt' the greatest idea :-) Toss everything with Italian dressing and serve.
13 comments:
Nice recovery. :) I do hate having to toss food out.
Mmmm, this would be perfect for summer too. I love cold pasta salads. What a treat to throw in some nice juicy shrimp.
Good job making a good salad out of a bad situation. I think we all have food fails like that. I have them more often than I would like to admit..lol. Way to go!
So glad you kept on trucking, this turned out great!
This looks far better than what I usually eat for lunch! What I love about this salad is how adaptable it is...you can throw in just about anything. I hope you have a wonderful Friday. I can't believe the weekend is almost here! Thank you for sharing, my friend. Many hugs from Austin!
Way to save the dish...I would have tossed it all! Maybe next time I have a flop, I can channel my inner Kate and rescue and revamp. Good for you, my friend :)
Good for you for saving the meal! It's so rough when a recipe doesn't turn out, I always feel so frustrated about the lost food. I'm like Ang, I love cold pasta salad. I'm taking inspiration from you for the next tie something doesn't work out as planned.
Oh that is amazingly delicious! Mouthwatering photos!:)) Lovely!
I love recovery stories like this! I absolutely hate throwing food out, and love your adaptations !
I never toss out food... I always try to make something out of it and most of the time it works out for the better. :)
Glad you got to enjoy your lunch!!
What a delicious salad!! Thank you for sharing.
Great job turning a dud into something beautiful. I love what you did with it and admire your ingenuity!
Good job rescuing the pasta and turning it into a new dish that you could eat. You have so many options and combinations with a spaghetti salad. Wish that I had some now.
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