A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
What is more American than celebrating July Fourth with an Italian pasta salad?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YANKEE DOODLE")
MARTÍNEZ: After all, two Italian Americans signed the Declaration of Independence, Caesar Rodney of Delaware and William Paca of Maryland. And besides, do you really want to flip burgers over a hot grill on an even hotter summer day when you could have a refreshing pasta salad Italiano?
DAN SOUZA: Pasta salad is both a wonderful thing - we all love pasta - but we felt like there could be some really thoughtful improvements to the formula.
MARTÍNEZ: Dan Souza is not Italian. He's the chief content officer for America's Test Kitchen and has an amazing pasta salad recipe.
SOUZA: It's a great one to bring to the party. It's a party in your mouth. It is probably the most flavorful pasta salad I've ever had.
MARTÍNEZ: Hard to believe, but Dan helped me achieve pasta perfection over Zoom. He was in his kitchen in Boston. I was at home in Los Angeles.
SOUZA: So we're going to start with cooking our pasta. We're working with a pound of fusilli, which is a really nice shape. It grabs onto a lot of ingredients 'cause it has that nice sort of spiral look to it. And so little bits of all the sauce ingredients are going to stick in there.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. So I've got my box. I'm just going to open the box and put it in the pot of water that I have on the stove. Here we go.
(SOUNDBITE OF POURING PASTA)
SOUZA: We're going to break the rules here. Most Americans are very familiar with al dente. Keeps some more texture to the pasta. In pasta salad, because we're going to chill it really well, the pasta firms up during that process. So we're actually going to overcook this pasta by about two to three minutes. It's going to seem pretty soft, but then as we chill it down, it's going to firm back up a little bit.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PASTA")
ANGIE MCMAHON: (Singing) And I spend so much time eating pasta. Although I'm probably allergic.
MARTÍNEZ: While the pasta cooked, Dan had me prepare some garlic using a technique that sounds tailor-made for my very particular set of skills in the kitchen.
SOUZA: What's really interesting about garlic is there's no garlic flavor in a clove until you start to damage it. If you have, you know, just a kitchen knife, you can smash the clove with the side of your knife and then run your knife through it in a couple different directions. And that'll do the job. The more you damage those cell walls, the more destruction you essentially do, the more flavor you create.
What's really interesting about how we taste food is it's temperature-dependent, right? So if you're tasting a hot soup, it's going to be more favorable to you than tasting a cold soup just - if they're the exact same soup. And the reason there is - the aroma is so much richer when it's warmer. When you're working with a pasta style that's going to be served cold, you really need to amp up all of those flavors in order for it to taste right.
MARTÍNEZ: One of the main flavor amps in this recipe - anchovies.
SOUZA: A lot of people grow up having a bad anchovy experience at, like, a pizza shop, and they're, like, the oldest anchovies. They're not high quality. And so they get turned off on them, which is really unfortunate because when they're good, they're incredible. They don't taste fishy. They taste meaty and super savory. People talk a lot about umami. It's that super savory sense we get from a specific amino acid called glutamic acid, and anchovies are so high in it. So if you like that umami flavor, anchovies are your friend.
MARTÍNEZ: Anchovy needs a better PR person.
SOUZA: Yes. It's true. It's true. They've got to get the PR person for Brussels sprouts because they did a pretty phenomenal job. Brussels sprouts on every restaurant menu. They're the coolest thing. That was not the case when I was growing up.
MARTÍNEZ: Maybe broccoli and Brussels sprouts teamed up because they both have...
SOUZA: Right? Yeah.
MARTÍNEZ: ...Changed in their view over the years.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BAD REPUTATION")
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS: (Singing) I don't give a damn 'bout my reputation. I've never been afraid of any deviation.
SOUZA: So now we're going to add in our kind of garnishes. And these are what give this salad so much interest and texture and savoriness. So we're going to start with half a cup of pitted Kalamata olives that we've quartered. So you're going to get these nice bites that are creamy and fatty and really pop.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, Dan, I've got to say something here because we have been cooking and putting this pasta salad together for a few minutes, and there have been no close calls on my fingers, no accidents. The area is blood-free. So yeah, I've got to say so far a success.
SOUZA: Well, it's good to know what the bar is for success here. But I'm hoping a little bit more.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RAISE THE BAR")
LUKE COMBS AND CRAIG MORGAN: (Singing) We're here to raise the bar. Give the place some working class. Drink a toast and raise our glass to the ones you know who'd go over the top and then take it up a notch. Yeah, we're here to raise the bar.
SOUZA: A, there was one ingredient that I skipped on the list, was oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes.
MARTÍNEZ: Oh, yeah.
SOUZA: Sun-dried tomatoes are another one of those ingredients, maybe like anchovies, where they probably need the PR campaign because they were huge in the '90s. Everything was sun-dried tomatoes, and I think people kind of got burnt out on it. But I think it's time for them to come back because they are flavor-packed, and I love that little bit of chew you get from them.
MARTÍNEZ: You know what? They've never needed a PR person for me. Sun-dried tomatoes. The second I get, like, those back molars on one of them, and I'm just squishing on it - ooh, man.
SOUZA: Well, you know what? I think we just found the PR manager for sun-dried tomatoes.
MARTÍNEZ: There you go (laughter). When MORNING EDITION is done with me, I'm going to be their PR person.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOME GROWN TOMATOES")
JOHN DENVER: (Singing) Homegrown tomatoes. Homegrown tomatoes. What'd life be without homegrown tomatoes? Only two things that money can't buy, and that's true love and homegrown tomatoes.
SOUZA: We have a ton of salty ingredients in here - right? - everything from anchovies to capers. So we haven't added any salt to this point yet, but what we want to do is taste it now, see if it's right. If not, let's do a few sprinkles of some kosher salt in there, and we can add some black pepper. That's really just based on preference.
MARTÍNEZ: I kind of like it like this.
SOUZA: Yeah. It's hitting?
MARTÍNEZ: I'm feeling this. This is pretty good. I mean, should I mess with it and add salt and pepper? Or, I mean, if I'm liking it already, should I just leave it?
SOUZA: If I were you, I would leave it. Look, we loaded this up with flavorful stuff, so it should really pack a punch.
MARTÍNEZ: Dan, this was really good because, see, I was really worried that, number one, I wouldn't be able to put this thing together, but it was simple to do. And as you said, it's something that you could bring to the party if you don't have anything else to offer.
SOUZA: I think the pasta salads that end up being eaten and people are going back for seconds are the ones that are really interesting, that actually keep you hooked on them, right? So if you take a bite of pasta salad and it's a little sweet and it's kind of fatty, but otherwise it's kind of mild, you're probably not going to go for another bite. But what's beautiful about this salad is the complexity and the variety in both flavors and textures. So you'll have kind of the all-star pasta salad on your table.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's Dan Souza, chief content officer for America's Test Kitchen, with a pasta salad for Fourth of July. Dan, thank you very much for taking us through this.
SOUZA: Thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RAISE THE BAR")
COMBS AND MORGAN: (Singing) We're here to raise the bar. Give the place some working class. Drink a toast and raise our glass to the ones...
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