We focus our big-batch salads around a base of either pasta or rice, and use a variety of veggies, herbs and nuts to pack a walloping punch of flavor. Each spring, I create a new salad recipe to add to our big-batch repertoire, and this year I wanted to showcase Sicilian flavors. So I turned to my husband, Tony, for inspiration.

I’d already determined that I would use penne noodles and radicchio, a slightly bitter, leafy, dark red vegetable that is commonly used in Sicilian cuisine. Tony recommended adding classic Sicilian flavor-builders including green olives, basil, capers, pine nuts and red wine vinegar. The result is a dish I’m calling Confetti Pasta Salad, a name inspired by its beautiful showcase of Sicilian summer flavors.

My father-in-law, Giovanni, was born and raised in Ragusa, Sicily, and he loved radicchio. With its brilliant purple-red tone and tightly packed head of leaves, radicchio is commonly mistaken for cabbage, but it’s a member of the chicory family and is also known as Italian chicory. Its leaves are thinner and more tender than cabbage, and it has a slightly bitter tone that provides a great balance to the briny tang of the capers and green olives.

Penne noodles are ideal for this dish, as their firm texture holds up well over several days and their tubular shape makes them perfect for capturing smaller ingredients like capers, green onions and pine nuts.

Forum News Service Confetti Pasta Salad is a bright and colorful mix of classic Sicilian ingredients including radicchio, cherry tomatoes, scallions, green olives, bell pepper, capers, basil and pine nuts.

The pasta should be cooked just until al dente, or “to the tooth,” meaning that the pasta is firm to the bite. When making a pasta salad, I rinse the noodles under cold water as soon as they leave the pot, to temper the heat and prevent them from becoming mushy.

In addition to Sicilian components, this salad also features cherry tomatoes, green onions and an orange bell pepper. When prepping the vegetables, it’s important to consider how they will best be enjoyed within the salad to ensure that each bite is filled with a variety of flavors.

I cut the cherry tomatoes in half for a big burst of juicy goodness, while the bell pepper is sliced into strips just slightly shorter than the penne noodles. The green onions are chopped into small pieces, and the radicchio is chopped into strips, or shreds, just a bit longer than the noodles, about 2 inches long and a quarter-inch wide.

Red wine vinaigrette is Tony’s secret weapon for most salads, and this basic combination of just red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil is so flavorful that most people don’t believe us when we tell them there are just two ingredients.

Confetti Pasta Salad is easy to make, nutritious and best when prepared at least 24 hours in advance of serving, thus allowing the flavors to meld together. The result is a refreshing, beautiful and delicious salad that is filled with the flavors of Sicily.

Forum News Service Always season the water with a healthy dose of salt before adding the pasta, about two tablespoons for a large pot.

You can find more great big-batch recipes online at www.thelostitalian.areavoices.com

“Home With the Lost Italian” is a weekly column written by Sarah Nasello featuring recipes by her husband, Tony Nasello. The couple owned Sarello’s in Moorhead and lives in Fargo with their 13-year-old son, Giovanni. Readers can reach them at sarahnasello@gmail.com. More recipes can be found at http://thelostitalian.areavoices.com.