A truly tasty pasta salad with bright green pesto dressing by Yvette van Boven

The same goes for her new book Jaarrond, full of seasonal recipes, columns, and handy tips for leftovers. After all, why throw something away when you can make something delicious with it again the next day? We are allowed to share Yvette's recipe for a truly delicious pasta salad with bright green pesto dressing with you in advance.

Yvette van Boven on this recipe

Yvette: “I became obsessed with pasta salad. Believe it or not. I wanted convenience, health, summer, something that would last a long time in the fridge, and something I could shovel down with a single spoon. From bed, I figured out why pasta salad is so loved, but at the same time so reviled.”

Things go wrong if the salad is too dry, and that happens easily because pasta continues to soak up moisture after it has been cooked. So the dressing must be added at the very end so that everything stays nice and juicy. Things also go wrong if there is too much pasta in proportion to the rest: it *is* called a pasta salad, but in fact, it should be a salad *with* pasta.

Also, adjust the size of the pasta to the size of the ingredients. So, small pasta, not large, cold shells to chew on: that is unappealing. And, I thought to myself, consider texture: pasta is cooked, so the ingredients should have a bit of that feel too: so no large chunks of raw cucumber, it is not a raw vegetable salad, but briefly sautéed zucchini mixed in.

Do you feel it? I felt it completely and made it immediately, following my newly established pasta salad rules. So that I, too, could take it along in a container to that sunny jetty, even if for now it has to be from the edge of the sofa. It tastes absolutely delicious to me.

Year-round

In Yvette's cookbook *Jaarrond*, you taste the seasons. That means enjoying a breakfast pizza with asparagus tips and peas in the spring, and then juicy strawberries in a strawberry Campari tart in the summer.

In autumn and winter, there are different tasty dishes featuring seasonal produce. Through this, Yvette shows you how to rediscover the common root vegetable, Brussels sprouts, or pasta salad, but in a way that is accessible to everyone. Well, she remains the recipe queen of the Low Countries!

A tasty pasta salad with bright green pesto dressing.

• Cook the beans in well-salted water until al dente. Remove them from the water using a sieve. Rinse with cold water and let drain. Now cook the pasta in the bean water until al dente, drain, and rinse with cold water as well. Keep it with the beans while you continue.
• Sauté the onion, garlic, and zucchini in olive oil in a frying pan until al dente. Really don't cook them for too long; the zucchini should still have a bite. Let cool on a plate.
• Make the pesto dressing in the blender by pureeing all the ingredients for it, except the oil, and blending the oil through in a thin stream until a thick green sauce forms. Dilute it with a drop of water and taste to see if it is seasoned correctly: does it need more acidity (lemon), more salt (anchovies, mustard, salt), or is it missing some creaminess (olive oil)? Adjust accordingly.
• Mix all the ingredients for the pasta together in a large bowl. Stir in the pesto dressing just before serving. (Yes, that also means you will have to bring it along in a separate container to that jetty.)
• Always serve pasta salad at room temperature (last pasta salad rule!).

Jaarrond (Nijgh & Van Ditmar) is now for sale for € 32.99.