Bring me your pasta salad recipes

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Sorry for the double post. But I’m wondering if anyone has a recipe or idea for a pesto pasta salad? I love pesto but on it’s own it’s kind of strong. What I was thinking, is mixing some pesto (I have a jar of it pre-made) with the olive oil/vinegar dressing. Does that sound weird?
 
Ingredients
Code: 
* 1 (9 ounce) package cheese tortellini
* 1 small red bell pepper, julienned
* 3/4 cup fresh broccoli florets
* 1/3 cup shredded carrots
* 1/3 cup pitted green olives
* 1 clove garlic, chopped
* 1/2 cup mayonnaise
* 1/4 cup prepared basil pesto
* 1/4 cup milk
* 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
* 1 bunch fresh spinach leaves
Directions
  1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place tortellini in the pot, and cook for 7 to 8 minutes, until al dente. Drain, and cool.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the cooked tortellini, red bell pepper, broccoli, carrots, olives, and garlic.
  3. In a separate bowl, stir together the mayonnaise, pesto, milk, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, and vinegar. Pour over the tortellini and vegetables, and gently toss to coat. Cover, and place in the refrigerator 1 hour, until chilled. Serve over spinach leaves.
Ingredients
Code: 
* 2 cups dry large bowtie pasta 
* 1/3 cup prepared basil pesto 
* 1/2 cup mayonnaise
* 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
* 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
* 1 cup frozen baby peas
Directions
1.
Bring large pot of water to boil, add pasta, and cook over high heat for 9 minutes. Then add frozen peas to the water in which the pasta’s cooking, and cook an additional 4 minutes.
2.
Remove from heat immediately, and rinse with plenty of cold water. Drain well. Place in large mixing bowl, and toss with remaining ingredients. Spoon into serving dish and chill.
 
ac_claire said:
Sorry for the double post. But I’m wondering if anyone has a recipe or idea for a pesto pasta salad? I love pesto but on it’s own it’s kind of strong. What I was thinking, is mixing some pesto (I have a jar of it pre-made) with the olive oil/vinegar dressing. Does that sound weird?
Click to expand...
Nope, doesn’t sound weird at all. Besides, I’ve learned the only to become a good cook and find things out is to experiment. Don’t be afraid, if you wanna try something then go for it! Hey, it’s pretty much how I learned to cook…good ol’ trial and error! 😛
 
Ruslan, the second one you posted looks similar to the one I eventually made last night. I used a bag of the spiral pasta. For the dressing I used about half the jar of pesto, maybe 1/2 cup of olive oil and a few tablespoons of mayo. I couldn’t deal with using as much mayo as the recipes call for. But if you mix in just a little with the pesto and olive oil, you can’t even tell it’s mayo; it just makes the dressing creamy and not overwhelmingly
pesto-y.

I saved back some of the pesto and olive oil in case I need to add some more later. Thanks for all the recipes, I’m gonna mix and match some of these ideas in my next batch. At the moment I can’t eat any hot foods for some reason, they make me sick. And no cold sweet things. So pasta salad is it lol.

ETA I also added chopped some sund-dried tomatoes that I’ve been trying to use up. Don’t like regular tomatoes but the sun-dried are really good!
 
ac_claire said:
Ruslan, the second one you posted looks similar to the one I eventually made last night. I used a bag of the spiral pasta. For the dressing I used about half the jar of pesto, maybe 1/2 cup of olive oil and a few tablespoons of mayo. I couldn’t deal with using as much mayo as the recipes call for. But if you mix in just a little with the pesto and olive oil, you can’t even tell it’s mayo; it just makes the dressing creamy and not overwhelmingly
pesto-y.

I saved back some of the pesto and olive oil in case I need to add some more later. Thanks for all the recipes, I’m gonna mix and match some of these ideas in my next batch. At the moment I can’t eat any hot foods for some reason, they make me sick. And no cold sweet things. So pasta salad is it lol.

ETA I also added chopped some sund-dried tomatoes that I’ve been trying to use up. Don’t like regular tomatoes but the sun-dried are really good!
Click to expand...
I love pasta salads. I am so glad you started this thread. Lots of great recipes!

:harp:
 
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