California Spaghetti Salad Is the Summer's Newest Potluck Dish
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Welcome to The Pioneer Woman Cookbook Club! This month, we're featuring The Tried-and-True Cookbook by Alyssa Rivers of The Recipe Critic blog. As a mom of four, Alyssa prioritizes nights where her family can gather around the table for a home-cooked meal. Here, she shares her advice for fellow busy cooks and her recipe for California spaghetti salad.
Alyssa Rivers is no stranger to busyness. On any given weekday, the mother of four spends her afternoon between soccer practices, cheer practices, dance, and piano lessons. And if you think it sounds tough to juggle four children's schedules, imagine getting a homemade meal on the table!
In her debut book The Tried-and-True Cookbook, Alyssa is sharing not just her time-saving tips, but also the recipes that've become her saving grace. It's full of "family-friendly, achievable recipes for the home cook or mother just like me," she says. The meals are practical and budget-conscious, and if her millions of followers are any indication, they're downright delicious to boot. After all, each one has been tested by her toughest critics: her own family.
One-pan meals? Yep. Dinners ready in under 30 minutes? She's got you covered. Even if you're low on groceries, you're bound to find more than a few meals to pull together from this cookbook. "I usually have all of the cans for 8-can chicken taco soup already in my pantry," Alyssa says. "I know that on a really busy night, I can just dump cans into a soup pot and the kids can quickly grab it and top with some tortilla chips and cheese." Korean ground beef rice bowls are another meal on weekly rotation in Alyssa's home. "That one comes together in about 20 minutes," she says.
You'd never know it today, but Alyssa wasn't always so savvy in the kitchen. She remembers being a young mom and new wife, and suddenly realizing that mealtime was on her shoulders. Luckily, under the wing of her mother-in-law, Alyssa learned simple, wholesome recipes that could feed her family. "I think I learned early on that it doesn't have to be complicated," she says. "What's important is having dinner around the table."
Alyssa's blog The Recipe Critic began after a cross-country move from Utah to North Carolina. She started it as a way to share recipes with her family back home, but one day her sugar-dusted muddy buddies got 40 pins on Pinterest. "I've never forgotten that number," she says. Today, her blog attracts about 10 million page views a month, a stark contrast to those 40 Pinterest pins of yesteryear.
The Tried-and-True Cookbook begins with Alyssa's lists of pantry and kitchen essentials, including easy substitutions like how to make your own powdered sugar and what to use in place of eggs. But she says her best advice is to plan and meal prep. Alyssa suggests looking at the week ahead and considering what each day may bring. Perhaps soccer practice will run late on Monday and you'll need something quick—hello, creamy chicken marsala! Or maybe the family is coming over for a backyard cookout on Saturday, which means million dollar dip must be on the menu. With so many terrific dishes, you could simply flip through her cookbook and dog ear a page for every day of the week.
The recipe we've shared here is one of the most classic summer potluck ideas: spaghetti salad. Just like your favorite pasta salads, this dish boasts crunchy, fresh vegetables and the easiest semi-homemade dressing. You can even toss it together the night before.
Yields: 12 servings
Prep Time: 3 hours 5 mins
Process Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 3 hours 15 mins
Ingredients
For the Salad:
16 oz.
uncooked thin spaghetti, broken into 1-in. pieces
1 pt.
cherry tomatoes, halved
1
cucumber, diced
1
red bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed, and diced
1/2
red onion, diced
1
(2.25-oz.) can sliced black olives, drained
For the Dressing:
1
(16-oz.) bottle Italian salad dressing
1/4 c.
grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp.
sesame seeds
1 tsp.
sweet paprika
1/2 tsp.
celery seed
1/4 tsp.
garlic powder
Directions
For the salad: In a large pot, cook the thin spaghetti in boiling water according to the package directions. Drain using a colander, rinse in cold water, and add to a large bowl.
To the pasta, add the cherry tomatoes, cucumber, red bell pepper, red onion, and black olives.
For the dressing: Whisk together the Italian salad dressing, parmesan cheese, sesame seeds, sweet paprika, celery seed, and garlic powder. Pour the dressing over the salad, and toss until coated. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight before serving.
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