Foodie Friday: Antipasto Salad!

This salad is so easy to make, and tasty, too! Great for a summer picnic, plus it's easy to diversify it according to your own tastes. The only cooking that needs to be done is boiling the pasta, and then there's some chopping that needs to be done, depending on what you want to mix in. Plus you can make this vegetarian, or even VEGAN depending on what you mix into the salad!

I've made this before and posted the recipe before, but that was years ago and sans pictures, so re-post/update! I also promise I'll post something fancier than basic pasta salads one of these days. Maybe not next Friday, but someday, I swear.

I made this originally for a big picnic on the 4th of July, but then Miss Daisy got sick and we stayed home.  Luckily, The Hubs loooooves this salad (he hates mayo-based pasta/potato salads), so he helped eat it up within a few days! Hopefully your version will disappear just as quickly.

Antipasto Salad

Ingredients:
1 bag tri-color spiral pasta
1 cup of Italian salad dressing (I used Zesty Italian by Sunny Select)
1 can quartered artichoke hearts (non-marinated), drained
1 small can black olives, pre-sliced, drained
1/2 a tube of salami, cut into small bites (usually I cut slices, then cut those slices into quarters)
2 mozzarella string cheeses, cut into small bites

Here's what I mean by "small bites"

Other ideas for mix-ins: pepperoni, roasted red peppers, mini-mozzarella balls, whatever else you like on your antipasto platter

Directions:

1. Boil the pasta to "al dente" state - it'll soften more as it absorbs the dressing, so you don't want to boil it too soft to start. 
2. While the pasta's boiling, choppity-chop-chop your meats, cheese, and veggies (if you don't bother to buy them pre-chopped and canned)
3. Once the pasta's done, pour into a strainer and rinse the pasta in cold water so it stops cooking.  Put it into your container, mix in your veggies, meats, and cheeses. Pour half of the dressing over your salad, and mix it up good, then pour the rest and mix it up good again. 
4. It tastes good freshly mixed, but it tastes GREAT the next day! I try to make it the night before so it has time to absorb all the lovely zesty Italian-dressingness.

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Six Sisters' Stuff