Pasta Salad, Surprise Party!!

Here is the recipe for my Cold Italian Pasta Salad. Honestly, be careful because if you are not already attached, you might make someone fall in love with you by serving this pasta. Don't say I didn't warn you!!

Cold Italian Pasta Salad

(I use two bags of pasta for a crowd, and just one bag if I'm making it for us to eat)
1-2 bags Rainbow Rotini Pasta (they are the spiral pasta that are 3 red,green,and white)

1 large cucumber, diced

3-5 slices red onion, finely diced. If you don't like a lot of onions, cut it back, or leave them out. Mel's aunt hates onions but loves the pasta, so I always put the salad together, take out a portion for her, and then add the onions last.

1 small package pepperoni slices, cut in half

1 small package salami slices, cut in quarters

diced olives (totally optional)
small package cherry tomatoes, halved (totally optional)

1 regular sized bottle Italian Dressing. YOU MUST USE KRAFT ZESTY ITALIAN SALAD DRESSING! It will not be at all amazing without it. No substitutions!! PICTURE BELOW!

Ok so you've got all your ingredients!!

Boil water in a large pot. Add a teaspoon of salt, and boil pasta as directed. Do not overcook, pasta will not be good with mushy pasta! I start tasting one piece of pasta every minute to make sure it's at it's desired consistancy. When pasta is al dente, drain and immediately run cold water over it (in a colander) until pasta is no longer warm. Drain, and put in a large serving bowl.

Cut up the rest of the items, and add to the bowl. Add dressing, and toss to coat. You can eat this pasta right away, but it's awesome after a few hours or even the next day because the dressing soaks into the pasta and all the flavors begin to marry. Make sure to stir before you serve.




Melvin's family has get togethers ALL THE TIME! He has an extremely large extended family all living in San Diego so there is always something going on at somebody's house. One of the first times I came along with Melvin to a family shindig was a BBQ at his cousin's house. My Mom used to make this delicious cold pasta salad that my sister and I would always go crazy over. I decided to bring this to the BBQ and now I am asked to make it literally every single time we get invited to a family event.

Melvin's 36th birthday is today so we surprised him yesterday with a big party at his Mom's house! I tricked him over there by saying we had to drop by his Mom's house to pick up a bday gift on our way out for the night. We got there and all the lights were off. Melvin opened the front door and everyone screamed SURPRISE! and he was totally shocked!! We are big San Diego Chargers fans, so isn't this cake we got for the party awesome??