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Salad Days: Artichoke, pickled baby gem & green olive pasta salad

3 Dec 2024

At the core of this fresh and perky salad are canned artichokes and baby gem squash that you pickle yourself. You get the sense of pride that comes with making something yourself while taking advantage of the convenience of a classy tinned product.

It’s “Salad Day” Tuesday and this week we have something very different, our own invention that you aren’t likely to have encountered elsewhere — especially the pickled baby gems part of it.

The third chief ingredient, for me, after the pickled gems and artichoke hearts, is the lovely green olives with a delicious stuffing of pimiento pasta; another store-bought product you should never feel ashamed of taking advantage of. It’s not as if we’re going to make stuffed olives ourselves, and I think they match the artichokes very well, both in colour and taste.

It’s also that thing that South Africans love — a pasta salad. I surveyed what was available, and settled on cornetti, which is a fancy Italian name for elbow macaroni. Pasta shells or farfalle would be just as suitable.

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I made my own pickling solution in barely five minutes using items in the cupboard: rice vinegar mixed with water in equal parts, a hint of moskonfyt (or use honey).

The spices were bay leaves, yellow mustard seeds, fennel seeds, star anise, a pinch of dried red chilli flakes, and crushed black pepper. Salt was stirred into it, not too heavily as this was a quick pickle.

The baby gems were sliced into slim eighths, slender and attractive to the eye. No boiling was needed — the sliced baby squash went into the stirred mixture at room temperature, and then went into the fridge for 3 hours.

Tony’s artichoke, pickled baby gem & green olive pasta salad

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

8 baby gem squash, cut into eighths

16 baby roma tomatoes, cut into halves or quarters

1 medium red onion, diced

90g green olives stuffed with pimiento paste, whole (this, in my case, was a 200g sachet of which the olives comprised 90g)

1 x 400g can of artichokes (retain some of the brine for the dressing)

½ of a wheel of feta, diced or crumbled

Ground black pepper but no salt (unless the pickle salting is mild)

200 g elbow pasta, cooked al dente and drained

Pickling solution:

½ cup rice vinegar

½ cup water

2 Tbsp moskonfyt

2 bay leaves

1 tsp yellow mustard seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 star anise

Pinch of dried red chilli flakes

1 tsp crushed black peppercorns

1 ½ tsp fine salt

Dressing:

2 Tbsp of the artichoke brine

2 Tbsp of the baby gems’ pickling solution, strained

1 Tbsp of the green olive brine

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbsp moskonfyt (or honey)

Method

First, pickle the baby gem squash. In a bowl, mix all of the pickling ingredients. Add the salt and stir until the salt has fully dissolved.

Slice the gems in half, from the top down, then slice each half into four slim wedges, leaving you with eight wedges from each baby gem. Add them to the bowl and stir. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, stirring a couple of times to ensure that all of the wedges get the benefit of the pickle.

An hour before you want to serve the salad, mix the dressing. Drain the can of artichokes (so that you can use a little of the brine in your dressing) and, in a small bowl, mix all the dressing ingredients and stir well. Leave to one side. Retain the artichokes.

Next, boil a pot of salted water and cook the pasta until al dente. Drain in a colander, tossing the colander repeatedly while the pasta cools down. Then, pour in about 4 Tbsp of olive oil, toss for it to spread through the pasta, and leave to cool.

Spoon the pasta into a fairly large bowl. On a work surface, slice the baby roma tomatoes either in half (lengthwise) or quarters, depending on their size. Mine were tiny so I cut them in half. Add them to the pasta.

Peel a small red onion and dice it into small pieces. Add this to the pasta.

Pour half of the dressing into the pasta. Toss the pasta with two wooden spoons or silicone spatulas until the tomatoes and bits of onion have spread through the mix.

Choose a large salad bowl (preferably one that is larger in area but reasonably shallow) and spoon the pasta mix around the edges.

Halve each artichoke heart, and place them around the salad bowl alongside the pasta. Make sure they will be visible when the picture is complete (yes, it’s a picture too).

Spoon the pickled gem squashes in the centre, evenly. Scatter the green olives around. Sprinkle the bits of feta over. Finally, drizzle the dressing over.

Note: I spooned about two-thirds of the pasta around the edges, adding some of the remaining pasta mixture when serving. I found that this recipe is best with more pasta on the plate, with a better balance. So, either spoon all of the pasta on the bowl when arranging the salad, or serve extra pasta when plating. DM

Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023

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This dish is photographed on a salad platter by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.

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