My Daughter's Kitchen: Favorite pasta salad

A summer pasta salad, with tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and grilled chicken, is a hit with fresh lemon. MAUREEN FITZGERALD / Staff
A summer pasta salad, with tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, and grilled chicken, is a hit with fresh lemon. MAUREEN FITZGERALD / Staff
Posted: June 28, 2012

Here is an excerpt from the blog "My Daughter's Kitchen."

My oldest son, standing in for his sister and taking a crack at cooking and blogging, is not in the least bit interested in light or vegetarian recipes.

"Where's the beef?" was the refrain I often heard from him and his brother if I tried to offer meat-free dinners when they were growing up.

However, I did come up with some dishes the boys came to love, including this summer pasta salad, a take on a caprese salad, made with tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil leaves — and, of course, a hearty helping of sliced grilled chicken for the meat-eaters.

This started, as many favorites do, as a thrown-together recipe, when there was leftover grilled chicken in the fridge and pasta in the pantry. With a pot of basil growing on the back porch, and tomatoes and mozzarella weekly grocery staples at this time of year, you can see how easily this came together.

It's honestly not something that even requires a recipe, but for the beginning cooks in my family, everything requires a recipe.

The bonus is that you can put this dinner on the table in 30 minutes, even if you are grilling the chicken. Just let the chicken rest for five minutes before you slice it and toss it with the rest of the salad and the lemon vinaigrette. The fresh-squeezed lemon juice really brightens this salad, so please don't even think about using that stuff from a bottle.

Contact Maureen Fitzgerald at 215-854-5744 or mfitzgerald@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter@mydaughterskit. Read her blog, "My Daughter's Kitchen" at www.philly.com/mydaughter.

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