Dry Pasta Salad

[Moxiefan]

Is it inevitable that a mayonaise-based pasta salad will absorb all the mayonaise and turn kinda grey in storage? I hate to mix more mayonaise in all the time, largely for aesthetic purposes. I mean, I think pasta salad is bad enough for me, anyway. I don't recall my mom or grandmother having this problem, nor can I imagine that deli counters across the country add fresh mayo (or whatever) to their pasta salad selections every morning. Is there a trick of some sort? A related problem I have is trying to store left-over homemade soup -- giant noodles, rice mush, barely sludge and the like invariably insue. Campbell's and the like don't have this problem, though perhaps their methods can not (or should not) be adapted to the home kitchen.

Thanks,
P

[Suzanne]

I think it's something to do with the starch on the surface of the noodles. Do you rinse them? -- which also helps to stop the cooking. Also, try using a vinaigrette instead, and mixing it in while the pasta is warm. You can add veggies etc. after it's all cooled down. Better for you than mayo, anyway.

As for soup storage: if possible, cook and store the noodles/rice separately. When you add them all at the early stages, they can overcook just from being in the hot liquid as it cools down. And of course reheating the whole thing makes it worse. Cook them separately and just add them to each portion as you need to. It also helps if you undercook them a little, so that when you heat the soup, they finish cooking.