I had announced on the last grocery list that I had taken a pasta salad with me to the graduation BBQ along with a million other dishes.
This is not that pasta salad. This is better.
That pasta salad is what happened when my brain looked like a giant bowl of malt o meal aka brain fart aka how can I sleep but make it look lm still awake? solution: paint eyes on my eyelids, no wait, glue googly eyes on there.
When this happens it’s usually from lack of sleep and stress and I try and put like 35 things in a pasta salad, then everyone is like, what the hell is this? And I’m all like:
I remade the salad and kept it to just three fillings, equal parts of each and it turned out great. I know this is a day late and a dollar short for Memorial Day, but I don’t want to live in a world where there’s only one BBQ for summer. Make it happen, then make this salad.
Pesto Pasta Salad
Makes a good amount
1 lb pasta, I used penne, but farfalle or rotini would also work
About 1 c pesto, I used my cilantro cotija pesto
a few T of olive oil
3 different add ins, 1 1/2 c of each.
I used olives, halved, quartered artichoke hearts, halved, and cherry tomatoes, quartered.
The possibilities are really endless, you could do anything from cannelini beans to broccoli to carrots to raw zucchini to mozzarella to peas. Just do 3 equal 1 1/2 c parts.
On top of that you could toss in about a 1/3 c toasted pine nuts or pumpkin seeds or sliced almonds. Do your thang.
To make the salad, boil the pasta, drain, toss with a couple T of olive oil and let it cool to room temp.
Toss in the rest of the ingredients and put in the fridge until chilled. Serve.
