Sesame Chicken Pasta Salad

Steve's daughters Catherine and Julia were visiting last week and I made a pasta salad for a family gathering. One of my vegetarian cookbooks I went to for advice said simply, "Do not make pasta salad. Pasta does not have the right consistency for a salad, and mixing it with mayonnaise is not the answer." It hadn't seemed like a snobby cookbook until right then. I went to my second source, "allrecipes.com" and found a simple Asian-inspired pasta salad. I had all the ingredients and a good idea how to adapt it to make it much better. When it was done, Catherine said I had "hit this one right out of the park." And further, that it "is blogworthy." I needed a subject for a blog entry, so here's the recipe, with significant enough variations to call my own. The proportions are a little rough, as I more than doubled the recipe I found online, and am cutting it back here. So use your own judgment as to the proportions...


Susan's Sesame Chicken Pasta Salad

Ingredients
10 oz. short pasta (gemelli, rotini, bowties, etc)
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup vinegar: half rice wine and half white wine
3 Tbsp canola oil
1 Tbsp sesame oil
3 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped
2 cups snow peas, savoy cabbage or spinach (chopped)
3/4 cup sliced green onions
3/4 cup cashews, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley
1 thinly diced roasted red pepper would also help add color

Directions:
Cook pasta according to package directions. In a jar with a lid, combine the soy sauce, vinegars, oil, sugar, sesame seeds, salt and pepper; shake well. Drain pasta and rinse in cold water to stop cooking; place in bowl. Add chicken and half of the dressing; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Just before serving, add the snow peas or cabbage (steamed to wilted stage or fresh and crunchy), green onions, parsley, cashews and remaining dressing. Toss to coat.