Oh, this was a good leftover salad lunch. Crunchy fennel is so amazing with pesto!

Linguini Pesto Salad

Ingredients:

• Leftover linguini with pesto (that was made with chicken breast and spinach)
• Shredded zucchini
• Chopped fennel
• Chopped tomato
• Chopped red bell pepper

Warm up the pasta, then mix it in with the chopped veggies.

This is a double leftover salad.  I really liked it except for that squash!  Texture and size of the pieces were too odd with the pleasing crunch of the rest of the salad.  It was a fun idea, though, and pleasing to execute: scooping acorn squash out with a melon baller. I wonder what other salads I could do with that.  Hey, I feel the start of a new blog coming: 100 Dishes to Make With an Acorn Squash Ball.

Garden Salad with Chow Mein and Squash

Ingredients:

• Cold leftover chow mein noodles
• Acorn squash, scooped out with melon baller (though I don’t recommend this; just documenting honestly)
• Frisee
• Radishes
• Small amount of canola oil (peanut or sesame would be great, but maybe not with that squash, which I still don’t recommend)
• Small amount of rice wine vinegar
• Black sesame seeds

Toss everything but the black sesame seeds together, then sprinkle seeds over the top. Remove squash, then enjoy the rest.  Eat squash for dessert.

I was in serious danger of making something gross when I was pulling out ingredients for this salad.  We had  a ton of tiny leftovers.  Do you ever get a fridge full of these?  The four bites left of something that you can’t bring yourself to throw away–then regret having later as they fill your fridge to the gills?

One of my favorite pizzas in Italy was the Quattro Stagioni (”Four Seasons”).  It’s the ultimate commitmentphobe’s pizza!  Four separate flavors in one pizza, with each segment of the pizza representing a season. 

Tiny leftovers lend themselves to quattro stagioni–or quattro something, anyway.  What’s the Italian word for scraps?

Quattro Something Salad

Ingredients:

• Mixed greens
• Macaroni and cheese
• Artichoke hearts
• Grape tomatoes
• Tuna salad
• Radishes

Directions:

1. In a bowl filled with greens, arrange the toppings in four quarters. 
2. Garnish with radishes. 
3. Be surprised at how good it is.