What Time Is It? Summertime!

I wanted to share one of my favorite pasta salad recipes with you today. The good thing about pasta salad, is that you can easily adjust it to yield fewer servings, and as with any pasta salad, it's all about what YOU like, so add more cheese if you're a cheese person, or fewer (or no) tomatoes if you're not crazy about tomatoes, etc. My mom adds olives, but I hate them, so I took them out of my recipe. I also adjusted this recipe to include more garbanzo beans and I then included cauliflower (which it didn't originally call for), because I love those things! Don't be afraid to mess with the amounts, because with salads like this, it's not so much about the exact proportions as it is about having lots of what you like in the salad. So without further ado:


Favorite Summertime Pasta Salad

• 2 boxes (12 oz) of tri-color rotini pasta, cooked, rinsed and drained
• 2 cans (12 oz) of garbanzo beans, drained
• 1 jar (14 oz) of marinated artichoke hearts, drained - but save the marinade (I cut the hearts into smaller pieces)
• 1 lb of colby jack cheese, cut into small cubes
• 1 package (6 oz) of sliced pepperoni, cut into quarters
• 1/2 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese (I use more sometimes, depending on the mood I'm in)
• 1 package (16 oz at least) of grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• 2 cups of broccoli florets, broken into smaller pieces
• 2 cups of cauliflower florets, broken into smaller pieces
• 1 container (16 oz) of Italian salad dressing 
• 2 tsp salt

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add one or two teaspoons of salt to the water so that your pasta won't be too bland. Once the water is boiling, add pasta, stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking to the pan. Test pasta after about six or seven minutes; we want the pasta to be al dente (visit this link to learn more about cooking pasta al dente). Once the pasta is al dente, remove it from the stove, place in a colander, and rinse to cool it off. Let it drain.

While your pasta is cooking, it's time to cut up your other ingredients and combine them all into a large mixing bowl. Break up or cut your broccoli and cauliflower into small florets. You don't want one piece of broccoli to take up the entire fork! Cut cheese into small cubes - about a 1/2 square inch should do it. Take your slices of pepperoni and quarter them. Grape tomatoes should be sliced in half. Take the artichoke hearts out of the marinade and chop into smaller pieces. Drain the garbanzo beans and add them in. Add the Parmesan cheese as well. Place all of these items in the large mixing bowl and use a large spoon or spatula to mix them all together. Add the drained pasta to the bowl and mix it in. Pour the Italian dressing and the marinade from the artichoke hearts into the bowl and mix it one last time.

Place the salad in the refrigerator so you can serve it cold and so all the flavors can marry. A couple of hours should be perfect, although this time around, I just couldn't wait any longer than 30 minutes. And guess what? It was wonderful. :)

This post's title came from this song:
What Time is It? from High School Musical 2