Warm pasta salad with basil and avocado
Posted by Marit on June 22, 2008
So, finally something that is not sweet for a change. One has to limit the amount of sweet dishes, after all, it is summer and going-to-the-beach time. That is why I decided to use avocados in the salad that I made, because this green little fruit is very useful for your health. Did you know that avocados help to lower cholesterol and regulate blood pressure and can even offer significant protection against breast cancer?
Firstly, some tips for you on how to choose a perfect avocado from the shop or in the market:
- A ripe, ready to eat avocado is slightly soft but should have no dark sunken spots or cracks.
- Choose the avocado which has a slight neck, rather than the one which is rounded on top. Slight neck means that it was probably tree ripened and will therefore have better flavor.
- If you are not planning to use the avocado right away, you might want to choose a firmer avocado. It will ripen in a paper bag or in a fruit basket at room temperature within a few days. It is not recommended to refrigerate avocados until they are ripe. Once ripe, they can be kept refrigerated for up to a week.
These kinds of tips. Maybe they might come to use. In this salad I did not use the very ripe avocados, as I wanted them to keep their texture. Warm pasta and chicken also softened it a bit, so I think it was a good decision to choose a firmer avocado.
The recipe serves two:
150 g pasta (penne, rotini)1 avocado 150 g chicken fillet, chopped
handful of fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice
handful of finely shredded Parmesan cheese
olive oil
# Boil pasta in water seasoned with salt.
# Meanwhile fry the chicken in a frying pan and season with salt an pepper.
# Using your hands, shred basil leaves into small pieces.
# Peel and chop avocado and place in a salad bowl. Drizzle over with lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Add shredded basil leaves and mix everything together.
# Place cooked chicken pieces into the salad bowl on top of the avocado-mixture.
# Drain pasta and add some olive oil to it. Mix to coat the pasta with olive oil and place pasta in the salad bowl. Give everything a good toss and adjust seasoning, if necessary. You can add the Parmesan to the salad or just sprinkle the platefuls over with some of it - up to you. Serve when warm, as then you’ll feel and smell all the nice flavors dish easy salad has to offer.
I liked it a lot. At first I was afraid of the taste of warm avocado. Never had had it before, that is why…but it was all okay - and mainly because I used not so ripe avocado, which could keep its texture while warm. And the taste! The tender avocado together with strong Parmesan cheese - perfect combination.
Posted in Chicken, Pasta, Salads | Tagged: avocado, parmesan | No Comments »





dinner the day before.

