This easy vegetarian pasta is full of brilliant hacks

By Melissa Clark, The New York Times

What is it about pasta salad that makes it such a divisive dish? Is it that the many bad versions out there — soggy noodles swathed in bottled dressing and tossed with wan vegetables — make good ones hard to imagine? Or maybe since the dish reached peak popularity in the 1980s, the entire category seems about as glamorous as a home perm on a humid afternoon.

Given this prejudice, I will not call this dish of cavatelli, corn, tomatoes and red onions a pasta salad, even though it’s a snap to throw together, highly portable and equally good hot, room temperature or straight from the fridge.

The most salad-y part about it, though, is how little cooking is involved. While your pasta (cavatelli or any other small, easy-to-fork shape) boils, you can briefly heat the garlic and crushed red pepper in some good olive oil, letting it cook just enough to toast the chile flakes and take the raw edge off the alliu...