Martha's Pasta Salad

Some pasta salads try too hard. Martha’s doesn’t, and that’s exactly why it gets passed around at every backyard cookout it lands at. Cold spaghetti is the unusual choice here. Most pasta salads default to rotini or shells, but the long strands actually catch the chunks of cucumber, red bell pepper, and diced fresh tomato better than short cuts do.

The dressing is the trick. Bottled Italian gets stretched with tomato sauce, which gives the whole bowl a tangy, slightly spicy backbone you don’t get from oil and vinegar alone. The sauce coats each strand the way ragu does on hot pasta, but cold and bright instead of meaty.

Drain and oil the pasta the moment it’s done. That coating of olive oil keeps the strands from sticking into one giant noodle nest in the fridge, and gives the dressing something to grip onto later.

Pro Tips

• Cook the spaghetti just shy of al dente. It softens slightly as it sits in the dressing, and overcooked pasta turns to mush by hour two.
• Salt the pasta water generously. Once it’s cold, it’s hard to season the noodles themselves, so you want the seasoning baked in from the start.
• Make it the night before. The flavors marry overnight and the second day is genuinely better.
• Add the diced tomatoes last and just before serving. They release water and dilute the dressing if they sit too long.

Variations

• Toss in a handful of sliced black olives and crumbled feta for a Greek-style spin.
• Swap spaghetti for rotini if you want the classic potluck look.
• Add chunks of leftover grilled chicken or salami to bulk it up into a main dish.