Pasta Primavera Salad Ala Larry

Eliza brought her parents down on Sunday to play in the lake as the season winds down and we invited them to stay for hot dogs.  For a side dish, I remembered that I had been wanting some pasta salad and after some looking, I found the recipe for one that I had made it the past, really liked, and was somewhat healthy.  I made it the day before so the flavors could marry well.

Pasta Primavera

Ingredients:

1 lb. Rotini pasta (or your favorite)

2 cups carrot, diced

3 cups yellow squash, diced

3 cups broccoli, small florets

2 cups red bell pepper, diced

2 cups frozen peas, thawed

½ can black olives, halved or sliced

½ jar marinated artichoke hearts, halved (had none)

5oz can water chestnuts (subbed for artichokes and to get crunch)

½ tsp. each dried oregano, basil, thyme leaves

½ lb. hard salami, cubed

8oz four cheese blend, shredded cheese

¼ cup parmesan, grated

¾ bottle Newman’s Caesar Dressing – See note

1/8 cup EVOO

20 or so cherry tomatoes, halved (just because we had a bunch of them)

S&P to taste

Note: Our store didn’t have the Newman’s dressing so we used Ken’s Creamy Caesar.

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and prepare a large ice water bath. Add carrots to the boiling water, and simmer 2 minutes.  Add squash, and cook 2 minutes more.  Add broccoli and bell pepper, and cook 2 minutes more.  Add peas, and cook 2 minutes more.

2. Pour everything into a large colander, drain, and dump into the ice water bath.  When cool dump back in the colander to drain, then into a large bowl or pan.

3. Refill the pot with salted water and bring to a rolling boil, add pasta, and cook to al dente. Dump in the colander and rinse under cold water to cool.

4. When cool, add the pasta to the veggies along with the next eight ingredients and carefully mix well. 

5. Taste, adjust S&P, and remix. 

6. Just before serving, top with cherry tomatoes.

To go with the pasta salad, we had grilled hot dogs with Bev’s homemade hotdog sauce, mustard, and onion and slaw that Cindy had made using a recipe from Noble Pig.

The Verdict:

The pasta salad was very good but I prefer the tang of the Newman’s dressing instead of the creamy Caesar.  The slaw and dogs were also a big hit - hard to beat a good dawg.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

08/28/22 meal date