Giada recently had a deliciously different and simple salad on her show that needed only sliced fresh Mushrooms, shaved Parmesan, and a very simple Lemon Juice & Olive Oil dressing. It was so elegant and fresh tasting that we loved it right away, and leaving the Mushrooms raw gave it a lighter than air texture.
Of course it’s us, so we immediately began to think of ways that we could tweak it by adding a little of this or that. Julie right away struck upon the idea of adding Orecchiette pasta, White Beans, and some sweet little Green Peas to build it up a bit and our new favorite summer Pasta Salad was born.
Orecchiette pasta looks like little discs – sort of like thick, squished shell pasta. Orecchio means ‘ear’ in Italian, so it roughly translates into ‘little ear’ pasta…doesn’t that sound yummy? Seriously though, they’re nummy little bite-sized things so they make knockout pasta salad but any other small-enough-to-shovel-into-your-mouth pasta would work just as well.
- 8 oz Orecchiette Pasta cooked Al Dente, rinsed under cold water to cool
- 1 lb sliced button Mushrooms
- 1 15 oz can Cannellini or other White Beans (we used Navy Beans ‘cuz that’s what we had), rinsed and drained
- 1 cup frozen Peas, thawed
- 2 oz freshly grated or shaved Parmesan (or more, we don’t think that there is such a thing as too much Parmesan)
- Juice of 1/2 a Lemon
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (whatever is about an amount equal to the Lemon Juice)
- A handful of Italian Flatleaf Parsley leaves, finely chopped
- Salt & Pepper to taste
The dressing:
Whisk the Lemon Juice and Olive Oil together, season to taste with Salt & Pepper.
The salad:
Cook the pasta in a largish pot of boiling salted water. Drain, and rinse in cold water to cool (by the by, a handy way to speed things up with this dish is to have the can ‘o beans already open and the peas measured out while the pasta cooks. When the pasta goes into the colander to drain, just dump the peas and beans in too. Then you can thaw, cool, rinse, and drain everything all at once.)
In a large bowl, meanwhile, mix the Pasta, Peas, Parmesan, White Beans, and Mushrooms together. Add the dressing and Parsley to the salad and toss to coat.
Though we do have a tendency to call this kind of dish a meal(a little bread, a little wine…), this is just screaming for a full summer BBQ with Chicken or Fish and a bottle ir three of a nice, bright White Wine or Champagne/Cava. We’re fans of Viognier, buttery Chardonnays, and Sauvignon Blancs, although we can’t think of a wine that wouldn’t be good with this. 
Hope you like it!
I will make the salmon if you guys bring this! The combination of mushrooms, parmesan , and lemon juice seems perfect!
It’s a deal