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Greek Pasta Salad

This recipe is from my daughter, Marisa.

Before she was married, she lived with two friends in an apartment. Marisa’s friends go back to her nursery school days, and I have known the mothers of her friends for just as long. I arrange get-togethers at my house a few times a year for all of us.

One time, I invited my daughter’s friends and their moms for a ladies night at my home on a Thursday evening. I work and so do all of the moms and daughters. I decided to tell the “girls” (Marisa’s friends, who were between 26 and 27 years of age at the time) to each bring a dish. I was serving only appetizers or desserts.

These girls were a little traumatized. Even my daughter said to me, “You’re going to ask them to bring desserts, and you aren’t going to bake?” Of course, I was going to bake—and cook and clean—but I didn’t want her to know what I was doing. I said I needed help with the food.

Luckily for me, I trained my daughter never go to anyone’s home empty handed. Marisa usually always asks me if I want her to bring something over to our house or she just brings it. Of course not all the time, because I am her mom and this will always be her home.

Most of the time she will bring some type of food with her. I really didn’t ask her to bring anything, but I expected her to do something. I also wanted these young women to grow up and pitch in by asking them to bring an edible item.

I entertain them at my home all the time. When they come with their mommies, they don’t bring anything because their mommies contribute a dish, and they ride their coattails.

These are not 10-year-old girls; they are women who are a quarter of a century old. Besides, they travel more than I do, and they drive newer cars than I do. So, is it to much to ask them to bring some type of food when they come as a guest to my house?!

I do want to add that not all of the girls need to be told. And it isn’t the cake I want; it is the thought. I think enough of them to have these get-togethers as many times as I can during the year.

If I sound proud of my daughter, it is because I am. Not only does she always bring something to my house, she brings something to other’s homes wherever she is an invited guest. Manners are very important to instill in our children no matter what their age.

Besides bringing this Greek Pasta Salad to me, Marisa also shared her recipe with me. Life is a circle, and when you are lucky, you are the start and your kids are the finish!

Greek Pasta Salad

1 pound bow tie pasta
1/2 red onion
1/2 red pepper
1 cucumber
1 11-ounce can of black olives
3 plum tomatoes
4 to 6 ounces crumbled feta cheese

Dressing

1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/3 to 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoon oregano
1-1/2 teaspoon basil
2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper

Cook bow tie pasta according to directions on box. After cooking, run under cold water and drain well. Place pasta into a large bowl. Wash and chop tomatoes. Peel and rinse cucumbers. Cut cucumber into small cubes. Toss into bowl.
Chop red pepper and red onion and toss into bowl.
Open black olives can and drain and slice. Toss into bowl. Lastly, sprinkle feta cheese over the whole bowl. Toss everything to mix together.
To prepare dressing, squeeze the juice from a lemon to get 1 tablespoon and add to a large measuring cup. Add the olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, basil, garlic, salt and pepper. Whisk together well. Pour the dressing on the salad. Toss until all dressing is absorbed.
ENJOY!—Zorba would be proud to serve this pasta salad!

Italian Cookery – pasta with Bill & Sheila

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Greek Festival New Orleans spices menu with dishes from the island of Santorini

To measure the authenticity of the food served at the annual

Greek Festival New Orleans, simply look at the names of the cooks and servers: Petros Demarinis, Cornelia Koniditisiotis, Nick Kleamenakis, Anthoula Malachias and a couple of hundred other Orthodox parishioners from Holy Trinity Cathedral. The menu is plenty authentic, too, with dishes ranging from savory pork souvlaki to honey drenched baklava.

Michael DeMocker, The Times-Picayune

MICHAEL DeMOCKER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
A canoeist paddles past a billowing Greek flag during the opening evening of the 38th annual Greek Festival New Orleans on Friday, May 27, 2011. The weekend long festival features food, Cathedral tours, performances by Hellenic dancers, more food, live Greek music, a kids’ play area, a Greek market, and, by the way, food.
Annual Greek Festival opens in New Orleans gallery (7 photos)

If that’s not enough to convince you, then ask regulars who never miss this extravaganza, now in its 39th year, which transforms the grassy banks of Bayou St. John into a busy picnic spot tonight through Sunday.

Ask the teenagers in native costumes. Ask the Greek musicians taking a break from the pulsing, bazouki-driven scene in the dance tent. Ask the patriarchs, in big family groups, where the wine bottles are passed from hand to hand.

But be warned, you’ll get an earful.

Some will mention the scent of lamb, rubbed with thyme and spit-roasted over an open fire. Others will tell you that they never leave the festival without eating dolma (stuffed grape leaves), sampling fried calamari with feta; or washing down a goat burger with any one of a half-dozen wines imported from Greece.

Dancing is frequently recommended: It’s a good way to work off the 16 types of Greek pastries produced by the parishioners. If you get sweaty, they also have a solution: ice tea and snowballs made with pomegranate. (The fruit is a symbol of good luck in Greece).

greek fest food prep 2012.JPG Ted Jackson/The Times-Picayune archiveOlga Christiakis, left and Mary Gianiotis cook the Santorini dish, Tomato Keftethes at Holy Trinity Cathedral for the Greek Festival New Orleans.

“You can’t separate Greek food from Greek culture and Greek families,” said festival organizer Danae Columbus. “Along with the church, it’s the thing that binds us together as a people.”

This year, the connections extend to the Aegean island of Santorini.

Columbus was one of the festival planners who talked to residents of the volcanic Aegean isle, getting the local spin on fava bean appetizers and tomato keftethes, a vegetarian “meatball” made with tomatoes, squash, onions, garlic and fresh seasonings. Both will be on sale this weekend, along with several wines from Santorini.

This past week, one of those Santorini vintages scored No. 1 for value in a New York Times tasting of Greek wines. The newspaper’s wine writer, Eric Asimov, described the 2008 Argyros Atlantis as “focused, harmonious and well structured, with an unusually meaty, savory aroma and underlying fruit and mineral flavors.”

Does that mean that the Greek Fest organizers have been eating a lot of those lucky pomegranates?

“Well, we’re pleased that The New York Times also liked that wine, but really, we’re just doing what comes natural to us,” Columbus said. “We grew up surrounded by Greek food and wine. We learned recipes from older family members, and most of us travel back to Greece regularly.”

Greek Fest also means a trip down memory lane for many parishioners of Holy Trinity.

“When I look at our festival,” Columbus said, “I think about plucking grape leaves from my grandmother’s garden and making dolma with her. I remember my grandfather’s Jersey City restaurant, and how, on Sundays he’d host family and friends for a big outdoor dinner down at the shore: 30 or 40 people at long tables with a lot of the food coming from the vegetable plot that he tended. That’s why I say Greek food is a family thing.”

Chris Waddington can be reached at [email protected] or 504.826.3448. Follow him at twitter.com/cwaddingtontp.

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Greek Pasta Salad

Greek Pasta Salad

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Greek Festival New Orleans spices menu with dishes from the island of Santorini

Greek Festival New Orleans spices menu with dishes from the island of Santorini

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