Kicked-Up Pasta Salad

Since summer is not officially over yet, there is still time for a GREAT pasta salad! This weekend, my mom said she was so sick of her "traditional pasta salad" so I said, "I'll make you MY pasta salad." My pasta salad is not only fun and delicious it's very simple and easy to make. I say it's "Kicked-Up" because I make sure that it has a BITE to it :-) Between the garlic, fresh onion, green pepper and crushed red pepper flakes, this is DEFINITELY a fabulous dish.




Ingredients:

- 1 pound of tri-colored rotini
- 1 large green pepper - diced
- 1/2 large sweet onion - diced
- 4 large carrots -shredded
- 6 cloves of fresh garlic - minced
- 1 bag frozen broccoli
- 1 cup parmesan cheese
- 3/4 container of Italian salad dressing
- Salt
- Pepper
- Olive Oil
- Crushed red pepper
- Handful of fresh basil, chopped

To Make:

In a large pot, boil water and cook pasta according to the package. It should always be al-dente.

In the meantime, take a saute pan and drizzle some olive oil in the bottom. Remove all stems from broccoli and saute the broccoli until they are tender, about 8-10 minutes on med-high heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir every few minutes.
-The reason we cook the broccoli for this dish rather than add fresh raw broccoli is because this makes it much easier to eat. Imagine crunching on fresh raw broccoli in your pasta salad... it's difficult to eat.

Do not over-cook the broccoli, you want it firm and tender not soft and mushy.

In the meantime, begin dicing the onion, garlic and green pepper and shred the carrots.

In an extra large bowl, add the diced and shredded veggies in the bottom. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. When your pasta is finished cooking, drain and add immediatly into the bowl. Add salt, pepper and olive oil onto the top of your pasta and begin mixing in with the other veggies in the bottom.

Add in the broccoli and mix together. Add the Italian dressing and crushed red pepper and more salt and pepper if needed.

At this point your dish will be hot. Let the entire dish cool off before adding the basil and parmesan cheese. About 20 min.

Stir in the fresh basil and parmesan cheese and mix until all ingredients are equal througout.

Store in the refrigerator until your ready to serve.

ENJOY! (serves about 8-12 people)