This week’s recipe for Cook the Book Fridays comes from Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook, Everyday Dorie.
Basta pasta potato salad is, contrary to what you might think, a potato-only salad (no pasta) and is named for a New York restaurant that is, according to Dorie “really Italian, slightly Asian and very happy to be indescribable, kind of like these potatoes.”
Pickles, capers, orange, saffron, and wasabi – not the typical ingredients you’d imagine in a potato salad. Here in southwest France, I worked with what I had, meaning no saffron or wasabi (sorry, not buying that for the tiny amount I’d need for this recipe given I’m leaving again in a few weeks and have those ingredients at home already) so I left out the saffron completely and added a little bit of piment d’espelette (hey, pourquoi pas with a bunch of other odd ingredients, right?).
The dressing has mayonnaise, pickle juice, and orange juice in it and when you are putting it together it does not feel like it would work well at all. But, weirdly, somehow, it does! I added chives for a bit more colour. We loved this salad though ate it on the same day I made it – Dorie suggests this would be better the next day and I can see this too. I’ll be making a version of this potato salad again sometime soon (and will try the wasabi and saffron too!).
Get the recipe for Dorie Greenspan’s Basta pasta potato salad on page 225 of Everyday Dorie.
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Disclosure: I was provided with a copy of “Everyday Dorie” for review purposes. I was not asked to write about the book, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions 100% my own.
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I agree that this potato salad is a little weird but in a good way. Saffron adds some color and personality, not much else otherwise.
I used dill pickle so I am not sure if that changes things but we loved it. I feel like my “sauce” was thicker than yours…so interesting when there are differences from the same recipe haha.
definitely a weird but good one. would make again!