pasta salad

Somehow we ended up with two open bottles of Italian salad dressing so I thought a pasta salad would be a good way to go ahead and use one of them up.

I always add tomatoes to pasta salad but we've only had a few cherry tomatoes to ripen in our garden so far...and not any of the Better Boys yet.
But I remembered that I have never used up the tomatoes that we dehydrated last year. I keep them in the bottom of the freezer section. and I just forget they are down there.

They were good in the salad, chewy and sweet!

Pasta Salad
16 oz. rainbow spiral pasta
8 to 10 oz. Wishbone Italian Dressing
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

about 1/4 to 1/2 cup each of your favorite veggies,
I used onions, green peppers, black olives, green olives, roasted red peppers and our dehydrated tomatoes.
Any veggies are good as long as you get a mix of different tastes and textures..chewy, crunchy, sweet, salty, sour, nutty...and so forth.

I like to dice the veggies pretty small. so the dressing will make them cling to the pasta.

Cook the pasta in salted water (no oil), just until done, but still a bit chewy. Cool completely then toss with veggies.  Add dressing and stir gently.

Stir in parmesan and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Stir before serving and add more dressing (or olive oil and vinegar) if it isn't moist enough.

 We had it for Sunday dinner, along with grilled cheese burgers, assorted grilled sausages with sauteed green peppers and onions, coleslaw, black beans, and cantaloupe chunks. ( There were buns too but they just weren't on the table yet when I took the photo.)

It looks like a lot of meat doesn't it?  These are favorites of my sons I always send a "to go" box home with them.

Chocolate Chip Hazelnut cookies for dessert.