Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Pasta Salad

Hi guys-Do you follow me on Facebook?  If you do, then you saw that a crazy good food truck here in Reno, Gourmelt, was featuring my Caramelized Onion and Chardonnay spread today on a grilled cheese with prosciutto, spinach and mozzarella.  Gourmelt makes a bazillion different kinds of grilled cheeses.  I chase them down on a daily basis.  If you live in the Reno/Sparks area, you have to find them.  They tweet and Facebook their location every day.  Find them, I’m serious.  If I could live on their truck and live only on their sandwiches, I would be a happy girl.

If you don’t follow me on Facebook….what are you waiting for?  All the cool kids are following me. (Did the peer pressure work?)

Back to me….or did I ever really stop talking about me?;)  I wanted to give another idea of what you can do with my savory spreads.  Of course, there are the obvious, like sandwiches, appetizers, etc., but I wanted to give something unexpected.  I chose a pasta salad that uses my Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic spread as a “dressing”.  This spread is full of roasted red peppers, roasted garlic, vinegar, brown sugar and lots of other yummy things.  It has all the spice and seasoning that you would want in a dressing, right in it!  I made this pasta salad a lot when I was testing recipes for savory spreads.  It is a winner!  I will show you how I made it. 

For this salad, I used one pound of rotini pasta, black olives, cherry tomatoes, red onion, salami, little pearls of mozzarella, salt & pepper, olive oil and Gourmet Rooster Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Spread.  Notice how my veggies are already chopped?  I will let you in on a secret…..I bought them from a salad bar at the grocery store.  Call me lazy, but don’t call me late for dinner.

The little pearls of mozzarella are readily available at pretty much any grocery store.  It is ready to go; it just needs to be drained. 

BTW-that gross looking thing in the corner is salami, still wearing its paper jacket.

Step number one is to boil your noodles.  I followed the instructions on my package, which told me to boil it for about 8 minutes.  Once I drained the pasta, I rinsed it with cool water to cool it off a bit.

I diced the salami into bite sized pieces.  I bought fancy salami because Chris loves him a good salami;)
Do you see how I left my knife facing up?  Take that, safety.

I put the veggies and salami in the bottom of a big bowl.  I salt and peppered the veggies.  Go easy on the salt.  Olives are already salty.

For the dressing, I whisked together about 3/4^th of a jar of Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Spread with about 1/4^th a cup of olive oil.  The olive oil is just to loosen it up a bit. 

Use the last quarter of a jar on a sandwich.

Once the pasta was drained and cooled, I added that and the mozzarella to my bowl.  I dumped the dressing on the top and mixed, gently.  The spread has a great consistency which will coat the noodles nicely.

Yum.  I topped my salad with some parmesan cheese shards because I am ridiculously fancy.  This salad is such a yummy side dish…or even main dish!  The spread really gives this a sweet and savory taste that is so good with the tomatoes, onion and olives.  I hope you try it!

Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Pasta Salad

1 pound pasta, rotini or penne

1 cup sliced red onion, loosely packed

1 cup sliced black olives

1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half

1 ½ cups salami, chopped into bite sized pieces

1 cup perlini mozzarella, drained

3/4^th a jar of Gourmet Rooster Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Spread

¼ cup olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and rinse with cold water to cool pasta.

While pasta cooks, put olives, salami, tomatoes, and red onion in a large bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.

Whisk together spread and olive oil.  Set aside.

Add cooled pasta and mozzarella to bowl.  Pour dressing over the top.  Mix gently.