This is a pasta salad I made just before the lockdown restrictions came into force – which seems like forever now, but it’s only actually about two weeks ago.

At the time there was a wave of panic buying and I was having real trouble finding anything in the shops. Things have calmed down a bit now thank goodness although food shopping is still a major preoccupation and the main subject of conversation with friends and family. This week I managed to buy loo roll for the first time in about four weeks, as well as tinned tomatoes and eggs (eggs!!).

For this recipe I had to revert to using what I had in stock – macaroni as the pasta base and then a whole assortment of vegetables from tins and jars. Luckily I had some salad leaves (from a mixed bag of spinach, watercress and rocket) which I stirred in for extra freshness and colour. I absolutely love the jars of roasted peppers, artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, black kalamata olives and usually have them in stock. This crisis has taught me to make sure I stock up on jars for future emergencies. I used some of the juice from the jars as dressing  and also stirred in tinned anchovies and some capers, and seasoned well with black pepper.  The result was a really delicious salad – salty and full of texture and flavour.

This recipe is dead easy to make – just boil the macaroni (or whatever pasta you have) and then stir in all the other ingredients while the pasta is still warm. It’s brilliant hot or cold.

Let me know your lockdown recipes and I’ll link to them here. Stay well everyone.

Do you have a cheap, fresh and easy recipe I can try? Let me know and I’ll feature it on the site and link back to you.

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