Cold pasta salad

Pasta salad is great on day one and sad on day two. The pasta drinks the dressing overnight. Don't fight it; re-dress it. A spoon of yogurt, a splash of acid, garlic oil and a bit of Dijon, and day two tastes like day one.

Method

1. Cook the pasta in boiling unsalted water for 10–12 minutes, or the packet's time, until just tender. Rinse under cold running water and drain well.
2. Dice the cucumber and pepper.
3. Mix the yogurt, lemon juice, weighed garlic oil and Dijon. Reserve 90 g of this dressing in a covered jar in the fridge for the next day.
4. Toss the cooled pasta and vegetables with the remaining dressing. Refrigerate promptly at 4 °C or colder, within 120 minutes of cooking.
5. Next day, divide the reserved dressing between the four portions and stir it in before serving. If eating a portion today, serve its share of the reserved dressing alongside.

Notes

• Keep the salad and reserved dressing covered at 4 °C or colder. Eat within 3 days of cooking; adding dressing doesn't restart that time.
• Refrigerate rather than freeze; the cucumber softens and yogurt dressing can separate.
• Nutrition is estimated for a quarter of the batch, including a quarter of all the dressing. Extra dressing changes the totals.
• Dijon carries sodium. A little goes a long way; weigh it rather than squeezing it in.
• Salt at the table, not in the bowl.