Barb’s Pasta Salad

As we move into the warmer weather, salads become part of our diet.  There is nothing like a cold salad with something hot off the barbecue!  Today we will be putting up a fencing around the vegetable garden to keep Fox Face from getting in to the berries, and then I will be taking the cover off the barbecue to cook up some Louisiana Hot Links and to go with it, I made a pasta salad!

Ingredients
2 cups pasta
2 stalks of celery
2 spring onion
5 radishes
3 oz. can of black olives sliced
5 radishes
3 clusters of broccoli
1 cup Parmesan cheese
Newman’s family style Italian salad dressing
Mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste

One of the secrets to a good pasta salad, or a potato salad is to make it the night before.

To make the perfect pasta: Add water to a pot and a couple of dashes of salt and set to boil. When the water boils, add the pasta and stir this for 3 minutes. After three minutes, turn off the heat, cover the pot and let it sit for 10 minutes. When the timer goes off, check your pasta. It should be perfectly done! Drain and rinse with cold water.

Vegetables for salad

While the pasta is sitting, start to chop up the vegetables. Add them to a mixing bowl. For the broccoli, cut this up into small pieces leaving some of the flowerets intact. Mix this together. Then add the pasta and combine. Next add the cheese and salad dressing.

Pasta mixed with vegetables and parma

I add just enough salad dressing to coat the mixture. Anything more will and you will end up with a soupy mess. At this point, cover the salad and let this sit overnight in the refrigerator.

The following morning add the mayonnaise. I put in a spoonful at a time. This ensures an even coverage of the mayonnaise to the ingredients. Then taste the salad before adding salt and pepper, and add a bit at a time, tasting as you go so that you do not over salt or pepper the salad.

Pasta salad is ready!

Easy and very yummy!