Today, I’ve mostly been cooking – so that’s what I’m sharing this afternoon. This last minute pasta salad is to take to a barbeque tonight chez friends here in France. I say last minute because I’ve already made a tomato salad and coleslaw for the same party but decided maybe I ought to contribute more, so this is it.

Since I’ve just made it up as I went along and it does taste quite yummy, I thought I’d post it here and then I’ll have the recipe for another time, which is good since that’s something I hardly ever do (write down what I’ve done when I get creative in the kitchen).

Ingredients:

500g small spiral pasta (I suppose any pasta would do)

1 large shallot

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

1 red chilli pepper (not the blow your head off kind)

1 large apple

300g sweetcorn (I used 2 small tins)

200g petit pois

lots of fresh or dried parsley

2 teaspoons turmeric

A shake or 3 of Cayenne pepper

A liberal amount of freshly grated nutmeg

Ground pepper

Ground sea salt

125ml lemon juice

Extra virgin olive oil

2-3 tablespoons mayonnaise

Basil to decorate

Method:

Boil pasta as per instructions on the packet. Cook the peas and corn and drain.

Chop the shallot and the chilli very finely. Chop peppers and the apple into small cubes.

Combine warm pasta with warm peas and sweetcorn, add peppers, apple, shallot and chilli. Add lemon juice, mayonnaise and olive oil and mix well.

Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and cayenne pepper. Add the 2 tsps turmeric and the parsley and mix well.

Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

That’s it.

Hope it gets the nod tonight. Must dash, have food to deliver 🙂