Pasta Salad with lots of veggies

Spring is the beginning of salad time for me and pasta salad is one of my favorites.  It's so easy and versatile by using different pastas, adding whatever vegetables that are in season, adding meat or not, olives or peppers. The possibilities are endless. The key to a good pasta salad is the pasta and the dressing. I like using rigatoni because it's a larger noodle.  A homemade dressing is good or use a really good Italian dressing. I use Reed's Italian Salad Dressing from Borger, TX.  They come to our Oklahoma State Fair every year and I've been buying their dressing for several years. It's my favorite, ever.  It doesn't have to be refrigerated after opening, has a really good shelf life so I get enough bottles to last me a year until the next state fair. They also sell online. I add the dressing to the drained, cooked pasta so it doesn't stick then add chopped veggies such as broccoli, carrots, celery, tomatoes and some kind of green leafy vegetable like kale, spinach or bok choy. I also add black or Kalamata olives, Parmesan cheese and sometimes banana peppers, pepperoni or summer sausage. Chopped onions or green onions can also be added but I don't like the taste of raw onions so I add either 1 teaspoon of sofrito (pureed onions, peppers and garlic, recipe on previous post) or I made a fermented onion and pepper relish that's really good added to salads. Here's the recipe:

Pasta Salad with Veggies

1 pkg. rigatoni pasta

1/4 to 1/2 c Italian dressing

1 to 2 chopped broccoli, carrots and/or celery

1 c chopped kale, spinach or bok choy

1/2 c chopped tomatoes

1/2 c black or Kalamata olives or banana peppers

1 t each seasoned salt, pepper and parsley

1 to 2 c shredded Parmesan cheese

1/2 c chopped pepperoni or summer sausage, optional

Cook pasta according to package instructions, drain.  Put in large bowl adding dressing and stir to prevent pasta from sticking.  Add rest of ingredients and stir until everything is incorporated.  Add additional dressing if needed. Refrigerate, will keep for about a week.

Enjoy,

Bamah