This was excellent! I will say a few things that would make it better. 1) I did not use whole wheat penne, and the dish turned out fine, however... 2) ...As much as I love an excuse to put steak on things, since I used regular penne, this dish would be better with chicken. Without the whole wheat pasta the steak is just a bit too powerful for the delicate flavors of the pesto and herbs. I can see the steak working nicely with the recommended pasta though--if I use whole wheat pasta, I'll go with the steak, but from now on when I use "normal" penne, I'll use chicken instead. 3) Lemon, lemon zest, or a splash of white wine. It feels like it needs the acidity. I might try playing with this next go. 4) I'll either make my own sun-dried tomato pesto or buy a different brand. This dish gets a good bit of its flavor from the pesto and I was not that impressed with the brand I picked--it was too oily. 5) Speaking of sun-dried tomato pesto, our grocery store has them (and most of their sun dried tomato) in the produce department, not in the isles where you might expect. I do think a traditional pesto would work well though, and might give that a shot next time around. 6) Like others, I used pitted Kalamata olives--straight black olives wouldn't add enough punch. Otherwise, I can't think of much I'd change besides the name--it isn't really a salad but a pasta dish :-)
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