Bean & Pasta Salad with Creamy Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce

Two years into cooking, blogging and meticulously planning meals every day of the week, and I STILL suck at using certain ingredients while they’re fresh.

Case in point-I buy dry Northern beans, fresh arugula and a few other items to make this pasta salad I’d been contemplating. I buy the arugula in the middle of last week, yet wait until last night (five days AFTER I buy the arugula) to get around to soaking and cooking the beans. Now, I’ve obviously got some experience with cooking, and should have known not to wait that long to use the arugula. But none the less, I procrastinated and waited til tonight to make this pasta salad. The beans cooked great, the pasta was no problem, the pepper roasted nicely and the creamy tomato sauce was delish. And now for the final ingredient! The arugula!

Sigh…it only it were still fresh.

A huge container of arugula and I literally spent a half hour picking through the batch looking for salvageable leaves. Arugula reeks when it starts to go bad, and a good portion of mine was getting that funky smell. Half was still in good shape and was enough to use for the dish. Still, it would have been nice if I had made this last week, in it’s peak of freshness.

Lesson learned? Probably not. But I will definitely make a more conscious effort to time my meals better every week. And I’m hoping another Pinterest party I’m having with the girls this weekend (I’m making a cute chalkboard to hang in the kitchen to write weekly menus) will keep me on a better cooking schedule.

This pasta salad is still fabulous, and really simple. It’s great warm or chilled and I’ll be using the yummy sauce for more than just this dish in the future.

1 lb cooked whole wheat pasta of your choice

4 cups arugula

3 cups cooked Northern beans (cannellini would be fine too),

1 red onion, sliced thin

1 roasted red pepper, sliced (just roast a red pepper in a casserole dish at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes)

Salt and pepper to taste

SUN-DRIED TOMATO WALNUT SAUCE

1/2 cup sun-dried tomato, soaked for 30 minutes

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 1/4 cups warm water

1/3 cups chopped raw organic walnuts

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

• For the sauce, combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until creamy
• Combine all the pasta salad ingredients together in a large bowl and then stir in the sauce
• Serve and you’re done!