Hass Avocados and Pasta Salad Nicoise with Avocado

All About Avocados

Hass Avocados

The Year-Round Avocado

Distinctive for its skin that turns from green to purplish-black when ripe, the Hass is the leading variety of California avocados with over 80% of the volume.

Description:

oval shaped fruit.
small to medium sized seed.
peels easily.
great taste.

Size:

full range, averages medium to large.
ranges in size from 5 to 12 oz. (84 28 count).

Appearance:

skin is pebbly and thick but pliable.
flesh is pale green with a creamy texture.

Ripe Characteristics:

skin darkens as it ripens.
fruit yields to gentle pressure when ripe.

Handling Information

excellent shelf life, stores well.
outstanding shipping characteristics.
excellent response to ethylene pre conditioning to ripen.

Seasonality:

the only year-round avocado.

Scientific Secrets

Ripe and Ready:

The best way to tell if your California avocado is ready to eat is to gently squeeze the fruit in the palm of your hand. Ripe fruit will be firm, yet will yield to gently pressure. Ripened fruit can be refrigerated until but not more than a few days.

Ripe Readiness:

To ripen a California avocado, place the fruit in an ordinary paper bag and store at room temperature until ready to eat (usually two to five days). Including an apple in the bag accelerates the process even more.

Multiple Choices:

Seven Varieties of Avocado are grown in California. Hass (rhymes with "pass") makes up 90 percent of the volume.

Robust Returns:

A single California avocado tree can produce up to 400 avocados every year.

Avocado Seasons:

California avocados aren't a summer-only specialty. The fruit is available 12 months a year, thanks to the coastal California micro-climate.

Avocado Trivia

Brazilians add California avocados to ice cream.
Cubans fill them with diced vegetable salad.
Nicaraguans stuff them with cheese, then batter, brown, sauce and bake them.
Mexicans add them to soft tacos at picnics and call them "butterfruit" because they use them as butter.
Chileans top hot dogs with them.
Colombians and Ecuadoreans slice them into soups.
Koreans mix them with milk to use for facials or body massages.
Japanese eat them in sushi rolls.
Taiwanese eat them with milk and sugar.
Indonesians mix them with milk, coffee and rum to make a cold drink.
French fill halves with shrimp or vinaigrette dressing and eat them as an appetizer.

Pasta Salad Nicoise
with California Avocados

Ingredients

1/4 cup fat free, cholesterol free prepared Italian salad dressing
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, crushed
2 cups cooked shell macaroni, drained
1 can (6 oz) water-packed albacore tuna, drained and flaked
3/4 cup diced tomato
1/2 ripe California Avocado, seeded, peeled and diced
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
2 tablespoons chopped black olives
4 green leaf lettuce leaves

In a small bowl, combine dressing, basil, garlic and red pepper flakes; set aside. In a large bowl, combine macaroni, tuna, tomato, avocado, red onion and olives. Add dressing and toss. Line four plates with lettuce leaves, spoon on salad. Serves four.

Per serving: 205 calories, 16g protein, 25g carbohydrates, 5g total fat, 3g dietary fiber, 7mg cholesterol, 308 mg sodium

Provided by the California Avocado Commission

This page originally published as a FoodDay article in 1997.