Don’s pasta salad

A family favorite, serve chilled.

Ingredients

Box of Goncci (or Rotini) Pasta. Don’t overcook.

1 Diced red bell pepper

Big handfull (or two) Shredded carrots (we buy a bag of matchstick carrots)

1 medium can of sliced black olives

1 handful of fresh parsley (we use flat parsley from the garden)

Minced up pepperoni to taste, half a small bag is good

Italian dressing to taste…about half a bottle

1 cup parmesan cheese (or more to taste, we use shreeded parm, not the dry stuff)

1 small to medium sweet onion, diced

1 can of artichoke hearts (2 if you really like them)

Directions

Dice and slice ingredients as needed. Wash everything well, only the pasta will be cooked.

Cook the pasta following the directions on the box, rinse well until pasta is cool. Toss everything into a BIG mixing bowl and toss for several minutes until everything is mixed up. This makes a lot, so we usually put the salad in 4 storage containers for future use. It keeps it fresher than having one big container that is soon about half empty and taking up space in the fridge. Several containers also cool down quicker than one big one. Give at least an hour to cool in the fridge.

Goes with anything, or makes a meal on it’s own. You can add feta as well, other cheese would work too. A nice baton of french bread with a goat cheese spread rounds out the salad.