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Gabe's Gourmet FoodsPasta salad is a beautiful addition to a menu no matter what the occasion or the season. The ingredients added to this pasta salad make it colorful, add texture and provide enough deliciousness that it can be considered an entree salad rather than a side salad.
Ingredients
- One Packet of Gabe's Original Dressing & Marinade Spices or Mama's Mediterranean Spices, fully blended and prepared per the instructions on the spice packet (mix the dressing in a blender or food processor)
- Vinegar of choice (we recommend red wine, apple cider, or white wine vinegar when preparing pasta salad. Balsamic vinegar is heavy for this recipe, but you can use that if it is your preferred vinegar)
- Oil of choice (we recommend vegetable, sunflower, or light olive oil)
- Pasta of choice (any size or any shape will work). This pasta salad was prepared with colored ridged Penne pasta; the salad dressing sticks to the pasta better
- Cherry tomatoes (halved or quartered)
- Green, black and/or Kalamata olives (whole or halved)
- Red onion (sliced thinly and halved or quartered)
- Yellow, red and green peppers (thinly sliced and cut to 2")
- Cucumbers (sliced thinly and quartered)
- Green onion (diced; optional)
- Feta cheese (crumbled; optional)
- Shredded or diced carrots (optional)
- Diced celery (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare the Gabe's Original or Mama's Mediterranean Salad Dressing in advance. Refrigerate.
- Cook the pasta until al dente. Drain, pour into a large salad bowl and cool taking care to add a little bit of oil (vegetable, canola, sunflower, olive, etc.) to prevent the noodles from sticking together until you add all the ingredients and the Gabe's Original or Mama's Mediterranean Salad Dressing.
- While the pasta is cooking, prepare (chop, diced, measure, etc.) all the other ingredients in the amounts you prefer
- Use as much or as little of all ingredients as needed. The pasta should be the main ingredient.
- Toss chosen ingredients gently in the large salad bowl
- Drizzle or pour generously with Gabe's Original or Mama's Mediterranean Salad Dressing (shake vigorously in a glass salad dressing bottle before adding to the salad ingredients).
- Toss or stir gently to coat all ingredients. Add more salad dressing to taste.
- This salad will store well and is bold and delicious when served again (you may need to drizzle more dressing before serving again as the pasta tends to soak up the salad dressing).
Tips
Select a salad bowl large enough to comfortably hold everything you want to add to the Pasta Salad and be able to toss or stir without spilling.
Keep extra salad dressing on the table for people who may want to add more of this savory and delicious salad dressing to their serving!
Serve again the next day - more deliciousness!
Take a photo. It will be a work of art!
