Pasta Salad

I have a little pet peeve with my sweet hubby. He swears he LOVES pasta salad, but every time we're at a restaurant or someone's house who serves pasta salad, I ask if he likes it, and he always says, "Eh, it's okay." So I asked one day, "What kind of pasta salad DO you like?" He couldn't come up with an answer for me.

So, for Memorial Day, I found this recipe at Let's Dish, and I decided to give it a try. I've never made pasta salad before that wasn't from a boxed mix, so I enjoyed chopping the veggies and seeing it all come together. It was beautiful.

Here's the recipe (with my minor changes from the original):

½ cup olive oil
½ cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp. garlic salt
1½ tsp. dried basil
1½ tsp. dried oregano
¾ tsp. ground black pepper
¾ tsp. white sugar
16 oz. rotini pasta
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 green bell pepper, chopped
¾ cup crumbled feta cheese
2 green onions, sliced thin
1 (4 ounce) can sliced black olives, drained
¾ cup sliced turkey pepperoni sausage, cut into strips

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, garlic salt, basil, oregano, black pepper, and sugar. Add cooked pasta, tomatoes, red peppers, feta cheese, green onions, olives, and pepperoni. Toss until evenly coated. Cover and chill overnight.


The verdict? He said it was "pretty good." When I asked him what would make it better, he concluded, "Maybe I don't like pasta salad as much as I claim to." Ahh...the truth comes out :) But I thought it was very good for pasta salad. So if you've got an event where you need to bring a dish, I recommend whipping this up. Enjoy!