Summer Pasta Salad with Cherry Tomates
Light and creamy veggie pasta salad.
Servings 4
Ingredients
- 12 oz Mini Farfalle pasta
- 8 oz jar kalamata olives sliced
- ½ red onion finely diced
- 8 oz jar artichoke hearts drained roughly chopped
- ½ cucumber roughly peeled and chopped
- 1 ½ cup cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 1 cup frozen peas thawed
- 2 heads of broccoli cut in small pieces and steamed
- ½ cup Homemade Creamy Ranch dressing or store bought
- ¼ cup Italian dressing
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Bring a medium pot of water to boil, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Pour it through a strainer in the sink and rinse with cold water to stop the pasta from cooking any longer. This also cools it down, so if you’re eating right away, your salad isn’t warm.
- Dice the onion, roughly chop the artichokes, roughly peel the cucumber and chop, and slice the cherry tomatoes in half. Place peas in a small bowl and microwave for a minute or until thawed. Cut the broccoli head into small pieces, place in a bowl and add a tablespoon of water, cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for two minutes.
- In a large bowl add the pasta, olives, onion, artichokes, cucumbers and tomatoes (I like to sprinkle a little salt on the tomatoes and let them sit for 10 minutes or so in the bowl while I’m preparing the rest of the dish, to bring out their juicy flavor), peas, and broccoli.
- In a small bowl, whisk the ranch and Italian dressings together, and add a pinch of salt and few grinds of pepper. Feel free to taste the dressing to adjust to your liking.
- Toss the dressing in the pasta salad, add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper, and the parmesan cheese.
- Serve!
Notes
I like my salad more cool than warm, so I’ll put it in the fridge for a half hour to hour before eating if I have some time to spare, but I know a hungry family can’t always wait that long, so get out the plates, a glass of wine, and dig in!