Mediterranean Pasta Salad

A while back, a kind reader suggested that one of SoupAddict’s favorite specialty salsas would be delicious served over pasta. And since then, SoupAddict has been waiting for the perfect opportunity to bring the suggestion to life.

Spring finally arrived and brought with it a warm, sunny weekend. Perfect pasta salad weather. And perfect lamb gyros weather. With tzatziki sauce. (But then, in SoupAddict’s book, any weather is tzatziki weather.)

And that’s when it hit SoupAddict: mix tzatziki sauce into cold pasta, as a creamy, but—light—base, and then top with the salsa. She could hardly wait to hit the grocery store.

The key ingredient in tzatziki is cucumbers. Yummy, yummy cucumbers, such a summer staple. SoupAddict craves cucumbers.

Tzatziki ingredients, ready to become what they were meant to be. Halving the recipe would be plenty for the pasta salad.

SoupAddict loves these little farfallini pastas (mini bowties). Use two cups of small pasta, or three cups of a larger pasta.

Mediterranean salsa ingredients. If SoupAddict had come up with the idea earlier, she would’ve made the salsa the night before, so the flavors could meld completely. Instead, she made sure the pasta salad sat in the fridge for several hours.

Add the tzatziki sauce to cooked, rinsed and drained pasta.

Hoo, man. SoupAddict loves da pasta, is obsessed with tzatziki sauce, and could eat this concoction straight out of the bowl. But, she waits for the pièce de résistance…

…the Mediterranean salsa. Mix it in. Stick the whole thing in the fridge.

Oh my. Delicious. And when made with 2% Greek yogurt and reduced fat sour cream, Mediterranean Pasta Salad is not terribly unhealthy. SoupAddict loves win-win’s.