Lemon-Herb Chicken Pasta Salad
Bowtie pasta, diced chicken, parmesan, parsley, dill, a heavy-handed dressing of olive oil and lemon. Made warm, eaten cold (or room-temp), the kind of pasta salad that doesn't apologise for being a pasta salad.
There is a class of pasta salad that gives the genre a bad name — the sad bowl of overcooked rotini drowned in bottled Italian dressing, served at every family barbecue from 1985 onward. This is the other kind. The kind that has lemon zest in the dressing, fresh herbs you chopped this morning, parmesan microplaned over the top so it tastes like cheese instead of dust.
The trick is dressing the pasta while it's still warm. Hot pasta drinks in the dressing in a way that cold pasta refuses. So you boil the pasta, drain it, transfer it directly to a bowl with the olive oil and lemon juice and let it cool there — it picks up the flavour as it loses heat. By the time it's room temperature, every bowtie is seasoned through.
The photo is the bowl — bowtie pasta visible, flecks of green from parsley and dill, parmesan shaved on top, chicken pieces folded through. Lemon wedges at the edge for additional squeezing. This is the summer-lunch pasta salad, the one you bring to a picnic in a glass bowl and watch disappear before the burgers are off the grill.
Method
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01
Boil the pasta
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta to al
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02
Whisk the dressing
While the pasta cooks, whisk together the olive oil, lemon juice and
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03
Combine while warm
Transfer the drained pasta to a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the
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04
Add the rest
Once the pasta is just-warm (not steaming), add the diced chicken,
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Rest and serve
Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (or eat at room