The Canned Vegetable You Should Be Adding To Pasta Salad

There are a zillion different ways to make pasta salad, and everybody and their Great Aunt Gertrude seems to have their own secret recipe with some all-important ingredient. Some people swear by Salad Supreme (it's a spice mix made by McCormick — you can buy it on Amazon if your grocery store doesn't stock it). Others, carried away by the latest food fads, may insist on adding pickle juice, while still others feel that the descriptor "salad" means you must drown it in ranch dressing. 

In light of such conflicting information, all we can do is ask ourselves, "What would Dan Pelosi do?" Well, we went and asked the social media food personality directly, and he took time off from promoting regenerative farming in partnership with McCain Foods to tell us about his perfect pasta salad recipe.

Pelosi describes his dish as a "classic Italian pasta salad," going on to say: "It's a version of the one I grew up eating. It has tomatoes, olives — Castelvetrano or black (I do just love a black olive) — and then, it has provolone." Pelosi didn't disclose the exact type of pasta used, however, nor the dressing or seasonings. As for the not-so-secret ingredient, in his case, it's artichokes. Not fresh ones, but the canned kind. And, instead of using them as-is, Pelosi likes to cook them first.

Dan Pelosi explains that artichokes are "really delicious in a classic Italian pasta salad," and this applies even if you just open the jar and dump them straight in. If you're doing it this way, you'll probably want the kind that come marinated in oil – you can even repurpose the oil in the salad dressing. Pelosi, however, offers a tip to make artichokes taste even better in pasta salad: "You can brown them in the frying pan so they get a little crispy."

Pelosi favors a fairly simple method. First, he drains the artichokes, then pats them dry, and sautees them in a small amount of olive oil until they crisp up. This not only gives them a bit more texture but helps decrease the strong briny flavor. If you really want some extra crunch, though, you can purchase whole canned artichoke hearts (or frozen ones, if these are easier to come by), then coat them with cornstarch and deep-fry them.