New Wave Salad

This is a nice salad to make at the end of summer when the ingredients are freshest and at their best. Essentially it's a pasta salad with lots of basil, tomatoes, green beans and olives. I've made it twice, both times with penne instead of fettucine, which I imagine would be tricky to eat in a salad. I had a problem with the proportions of the red wine basil vinaigrette they suggest to use as the dressing, on page 190. There seemed to be way too much oil in the ratio, but even scaling it back the dressing seemed too oily for the salad. You ended up with a pool of oil at the bottom of your bowl, kind of offputting. Also, the vinegar ended up being too dominant. Rejigging the vinaigrette would improve this recipe a lot. Just make sure the ingredients are nice and fresh, and you can't go too wrong.