Easy Pasta Salad
We just had a nice, long 4th of July weekend! And, as is standard, we had an amazing BBQ. This holiday has always been one of my favorites, though I might be prejudiced by having that holiday as a birthday as well. I love a good BBQ party, and being close enough to the fireworks show to where you can feel the booms going right through your chest. It’s the best!
For most of the get-togethers we go to, I make my tried and true Pea Salad. But for this, I like to make a zesty pasta salad! This is another one of those recipes that is extremely versatile in the ingredients you can throw in there. If you don’t like one thing, either just take it out completely, or replace it with something you do like!
I made a pretty big batch this time around, mainly because I knew I was going to want to munch on the leftovers over the next few days, so you can adjust the quantity of the ingredients to whatever works best for you and your needs.
The night before I needed it, I cooked up 2 boxes of the rainbow rotini pasta, mainly for color. White pasta, wheat pasta, it all works. While that was boiling I cut up a large red onion, a bag of mini bell peppers (it was about a medium size with maybe 15-20 peppers, and I didn’t end up using all of them), and the salami. I got the salami from the deli at our local Albertson’s, but you can use whatever kind you like, at whatever thickness you prefer.
Once all of that was done, I threw it all into a big bowl, mixed it together, and then set it in the fridge overnight to make sure it was nice and cold. The next day was as easy as tossing in a can of black olives (I used hole and just sliced them up a bit), and a container of feta cheese. I usually like adding artichoke hearts but had forgotten to buy those. About 30 minutes before serving, add in some Zesty Italian salad dressing, salt, and pepper.
That’s it. Literally. You can add tomatoes if you would like, I’m not a tomato either. You could add some basil and thyme, capers, shredded carrot, whatever you’d like! But it’s easy, and delicious!
