White Bean and Arugula Pasta Salad

If there is one downside to knowing how to cook, it’s that once your friends figure out that you know how to cook, they will expect you to do it quite well. Or, maybe they could care less but you just think they do.

Either way, all it takes is one dinnertime home run to feel pressured to pull of an amazing kitchen feat every time. And if you hit it over the fence twice? You can probably get away with using really dumb baseball metaphors when you’re talking about dinner. The moral of this story is that whenever I go to someone’s house for dinner or a wine and cheese party or to see their new baby or really just show up for any domestically-oriented get together, I feel compelled to pull out all of the stops with delicious food that I would, quite honestly, probably never even make for myself if not for the opportunity.

A lot of the cooking we do is motivated by that, opportunity. We cook for guests, we cook for picnics, we cook for potlucks. We’re all for cooking for occasions but a Tuesday night dinner seems low on the totem pole. So, here’s a pro tip. Next time you’re asked to bring a dish to someone’s home or a snack for a housewarming party, create something that you can just as easily turn into your own meal. It’s the benefits of “company food” as in, something you’d make for company, but you can also enjoy it just as much in the solitude of your own kitchen.

My favorite thing about the particular pasta salad is that it’s as good cold, as a picnic side dish to bring to a party, as it is slightly warmed.  If you want to repurpose it into a dinner for one, toss it with a little bit of basil or even just heat it up topped with some olive oil and parmesan cheese and you’ll have yourself a healthy meal.