How to Make Amazing Pasta Salad

Making pasta salad that will floor your guests takes under an hour.

Pasta salad is a tried-and-true side dish popular at cookouts and picnics. But if you want to go a step beyond just boiled pasta, black olives and dressing, why not try making amazing pasta salad. The "amazing" part comes when you add ingredients like artichoke hearts, feta cheese and mushrooms. Preparation and cooking takes about an hour for this tasty pasta salad upgrade, but you'll be left with one certainty: an empty bowl after your guests have all gone through the food line.

Things You'll Need

• 12 oz. tri-color spiral pasta
• Large Dutch oven
• 8 cups of water
• Paring knife
• 6-oz. can sliced black olives
• 12-oz. can quartered artichoke hearts
• 1 broccoli floret
• 1 yellow sweet pepper
• 1 orange sweet bell pepper
• 2 zucchini
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• 1 sweet red pepper
• 1 red onion
• 1 1/2 cups feta cheese
• 1 pint sliced mushrooms
• Large mixing bowl
• 16 oz. Italian dressing

Instructions

1. In a large Dutch oven, bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add your tri-color pasta to the pot and let cook until it is tender.

2. Wash all of your fresh vegetables and set aside. Open any canned items and drain.

3. Break the broccoli into bite-sized pieces, and set aside. Use a paring knife to cut open and cube the yellow and orange peppers, discarding any seeds, ribs and stems. Set aside.

4. Trim canned artichoke hearts into bite-size pieces. Cube the onion and zucchinis.

5. Combine all of the vegetables, including the whole cherry tomatoes, into a large bowl. Mix in feta cheese and mushrooms.

6. Drain the pasta and, once cool, mix with the vegetables. Avoid adding the dressing until shortly before you're ready to serve the pasta salad since the pasta-vegetable mixture will absorb it, leaving your side dish tasting somewhat dried out.

References

• Food.com; Amazing Pasta Salad; July 2010