Tahini-Parmesan Pasta Salad

I thought this was pretty good. You do need to use a lot of mint or else the flavor won’t come through enough. I added a whole lemon juice and zest like many recommended and a tablespoon of chili crisp. That made it very tasty. I brought it to a function, so it was pretty approachable by lots of different tastes.

There are quite a few comments on here about the blandness of this recipe. The instructions say to add pasta water to the tahini/parm mix. The instructions also call for salted pasta water. If your pasta water is well-salted as it should be, adding it to the tahini/parm mix will definitely make it less bland. I made this recipe as-is and found the flavors full of umami without adding anything else. Use high quality tahini and fresh parmesan (huge difference) and salt your pasta water!

This recipe did not turn out as I thought. I did add lemon, but it lacked the Middle Eastern flavor that I had hoped for. It make a lot of pasta. I would recommend halving, unless you are using it for a party.

This salad suffers from an identity crisis, which creates a muddled flavor profile. Is it middle eastern? Is it Italian? It's oddly somewhere in between. I made it as stated...very bland. I think the water used in the dressing zaps all flavor and then you play catch up with more herbs, more salt, more cheese, add lemon. Nothing really brings this salad to life. My guests ate it and liked it OK, but they weren't sure what to make of it and didn't ask for the recipe.

Good warm. Mint adds a lot to the flavor

Great use of leftover tahini. Some additions/substitutions were needed to liven it up a bit. A small can of fire roasted tomatoes (drained) in place of fresh, dried mint rather than fresh (didn't have either on hand), and grated gruyere substituted parmesan. Easier to mix the pasta water with the tahini and cheese. I added half a jar of marinated artichoke hearts and half its liquid along with some diced sundried tomatoes. Rather than salt/pepper/sesame, Everything But The Bagel seasoning.

Really looked forward to enjoying this unusual, pasta salad. Found it to be “curiously unrefreshing“. So much so that after a single serving, the rest of it went into the compost bin very disappointing and an unfortunate waste of time and good ingredients. After reading, others’ comments, I still wouldn’t spend the time trying to tweak it into something taste worthy. Too bad.

As others have said, meh. Should have read the notes but I was in a rush and had most of the ingredients.

I added a big spoonful of Ricotta to the tahini mixture and also added some spring onions to the tomato fry, and I think it gave the whole thing more umami.i also added cut-up spinach.

Made as written and loved it! The parmesan is a key member of this cast, so be sure to use good quality and freshly grated. I was a little hesitant about how the mint would blend with the other ingredients, but have had good success with other recipes by Ali Slagle, so went with it, and really enjoy how it played off the other flavors. Took this to a neighborhood party, and brought very little home.

Added the juice of half a lemon, used sun-dried tomato bruschetta instead of the cherry tomatoes and skipped the sesame-- was very flavorful and delicious! Took it to a dinner party and everyone loved it.

To make this vegan without sacrificing flavour, substitute powdered dried white miso for the Parmesan.

Cut the recipe in half. Better day 2-3, after flavors meld.

At first I thought the comments might be wrong but I did ended up changing a few things. I made 300 grams of casarecce and used a pint of grape tomatoes, 1/3 cup of tahini, 1/2 cup of parmesan, 3 scallions, a squeeze of tomato paste and 1 tbs of sesame seeds. It still felt something was missing so I added the juice of half lime and smoked paprika flakes. All my family loved it.

Omitted Parmesan and still turned out great with some lemon added as others suggested. Suggest adding more tomatoes if that’s your thing (it’s mine).