Hedy Lamarr's Pasta Salad

We explored the films, food, life and inventions of Hedy Lamarr.

Hedy Lamarr gained international attention for her role in the controversial film Ecstasy (1933). Her American film debut came with the release of 1938's Algiers. She went on to star opposite many of the biggest names in Hollywood including Clark Gable, William Powell, Spencer Tracy and Jimmy Stewart. Off the set, Lamarr was an inventor and during WWII she invented frequency hopping, which laid the groundwork for the development of wi-fi.

Recipe

This recipe comes straight from the source! Roy new Hedy very well and this is a salad he made for her. It doesn't get more authentic than that.

Roy’s Pasta Salad – Hedy Lamarr’s favorite

Ingredients

1 box of Rotini Pasta – cook and drain – best al dente. This will keep the pasta from falling

apart when tossing and mixing

1 cu zucchini cut into small quarters (usually 2 medium zucchinis)

1 can black olives drained and cut if desired

1 small container of grape tomatoes

1 cup baby carrots cut into small pieces

1 cup of broccoli florets cut into small pieces

1 can of red kidney beans (drained)

Feta cheese – buy a brick if available then cut into small pieces. Crumbled is fine

Italian dressing store bought or homemade

Homemade Italian Dressing (You can skip this and just buy a bottle of Italian dressing too!)

1⁄2 cup of extra virgin olive oil

1⁄4 cup red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon of dried basil

2 cloves of garlic minced

2 teaspoons of onion powder

1⁄2 teaspoon of sea or kosher salt

Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions

Add cooked pasta in a large bowl or foil pan

Add vegetables then give a good toss

Pour over dressing enough to coat all the ingredients and toss well.

Rotoni pasta is great to use since the dressing usually gets trapped in the spirals

Recipe is easily changed to give the pasta salad different flavors like Mediterranean or a

antipasto salad

Different cheese can be substituted

Add salami slices cut into quarters

Peppercinis

Different olives can be substituted

So many options and easily thrown together. Perfect.

Special Guest

Roy Windham is a film historian, movie memorabilia dealer and has been collecting on Hedy Lamarr for 50 years. He sells items on ebay and is the creator of the Facebook page Hedy Lamarr and Me.

Roy Windham and I did the audio commentary together for the DVD release of Algiers (1938) from Film Masters.

Video

I highly recommend the documentary "Bombshell The Hedy Lamarr Story" directed by Alexandra Dean. You can find it on Netflix.

Final Result

This salad is versatile and can be easily customized to suit your taste. You can also add chicken, shrimp, fish or sliced deli meat. Either way, this is a colorful and tasty summer salad.

There are Hedy Lamarr films available on DVD, Streaming and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). On August 19th, 2025 TCM will be dedicating an entire 24 hours to Hedy Lamar films as part of their annual "Summer Under the Stars" series.

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Thank you for watching and stay tuned for more food, fun and film history.

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