Cooking for one is where Delia Smith’s pasta salad comes from, and it’s a spiced one, with wholewheat macaroni, a chopped hard-boiled egg, green pepper, spring onion and apple in a gentle curry dressing finished with a spoonful of mayonnaise. It’s a quick supper for one, and the egg and the pasta cook side by side in about 10 minutes.
She wrote it for One is Fun, her book about cooking for yourself, as a vegetarian supper or a side salad that keeps for a couple of days and goes especially well with cold chicken. Turmeric turns the dressing gold, so every forkful brings nutty pasta, sweet apple and crisp pepper, with the soft egg holding it all together.
Delia Smith’s Spiced Wholewheat Pasta Salad
Course: SaladsCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy1
servings10
minutes10
minutes515
kcalWholewheat macaroni, egg, apple and green pepper in a turmeric and curry dressing, written by Delia for one person in One is Fun, page 161. Multiply the ingredients to feed more people.
Ingredients
- For the salad:
1 egg
50g (2oz) wholewheat macaroni
25g (1oz) green pepper, finely chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
¼ dessert apple, chopped small
a few drops of oil
- For the dressing:
½ clove garlic, crushed
⅓ teaspoon salt
⅓ teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon wine vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 teaspoons oil
⅓ teaspoon Madras curry powder
⅓ teaspoon turmeric
freshly ground black pepper
1 dessertspoon mayonnaise
- To serve:
a few crisp lettuce leaves
1 teaspoon chopped parsley
Directions
- Egg: Put the egg in a small pan of cold water, bring it up to the boil and boil for 7 minutes. Cool it under the cold tap.
- Pasta: Meanwhile, bring a small saucepan of water to the boil with a little salt and a few drops of oil. Add the macaroni, stir a couple of times and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Rinse: Tip the pasta into a colander or sieve and run the cold tap over it until it’s cool, then leave it to drain.
- Dressing: Mix the garlic, salt, mustard powder, vinegar, lemon juice, oil, curry powder, turmeric and some pepper together.
- Mix: Put the macaroni, pepper, spring onions and apple in a bowl. Peel the egg, chop it quite small and add it, stir in the mayonnaise, then pour over the dressing and mix again.
- Serve: Spoon the salad onto the lettuce leaves and sprinkle with the parsley.
Notes
- A crisp eating apple such as a Cox keeps its crunch best, which is my own choice.
- Madras curry powder is medium-hot, so use a mild curry powder in the same amount if you prefer less heat.
FAQs
Can I use ordinary white pasta?
Yes, and Delia herself went off wholewheat later on. By the time she revised her Complete Cookery Course, she admitted its stodginess had made her less keen, although she’d first tried it because it was the healthier choice.
Any small white macaroni or short shape works in the same amount. Cook it for the time on the packet rather than the 10 minutes wholewheat needs, then cool and drain it the same way.
Why rinse the pasta under the cold tap?
To stop it sticking together. Delia runs the cold tap over the drained macaroni, because pasta left to cool on its own goes gluey as it sits.
Cold, separate pasta also takes the dressing evenly. Shake the colander well afterwards so no water dilutes the mayonnaise.
How do I make it for 4?
Multiply everything by four, which is my own maths. That gives 4 eggs, 200g (7oz) of macaroni, 110g (4oz) of green pepper, 8 spring onions and a whole apple.
For the dressing, use 2 cloves of garlic, 1⅓ teaspoons each of salt, mustard powder, curry powder and turmeric, 4 teaspoons each of vinegar and lemon juice, 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of oil and 4 dessertspoons of mayonnaise. Cook the pasta in a large pan, as it needs room to move.
How long does it keep?
A couple of days, as Delia suggests it as a side salad to dip into over two days. Keep it covered in the fridge, and stir it before serving, since the dressing settles.
The apple browns a little and the pepper softens by the second day, so I’d chop those just before serving if it matters to you. Keep the parsley back until the last minute too, so it stays green.
Is the ditalini salad on Delia Online her pasta salad?
Not one from her books. Delia Online’s ditalini salad is a summer recipe for 6, with griddled baby courgettes, broad beans, peas and a basil, lemon and Grana Padano dressing, and it’s marked as sponsored by Grana Padano.
It doesn’t appear in any of her printed books, so this page sticks to the pasta salad she wrote herself. Her One is Fun also has a tuna and pasta salad with tarragon and lemon, ready in about 15 minutes.
