Antipasto Pasta Salad

Hands up if you are a fan of Antipasto trays? You know, those beautifully-colourful trays of marinated and pickled vegetables – artichokes, roasted red peppers, pickles, olives, onions – usually served with meat and cheeses. I love them and I have to admit that they’ve been dinner on more than one occasion! When I’m having a large group over, I have a weakness for pasta salads. They can be prepared ahead of time and are usually better the next day. I decided to combine the flavours of an antipasto tray with a pasta salad. Since I was using jarred marinated artichokes, sundried tomatoes, black olives, roasted red peppers and mushrooms, it really sped up the prep time. An added bonus? The oil that the sundried tomatoes were packed in gets another life as the salad dressing! This Antipasto Pasta Salad has some gorgeous flavours and I love the mix between fresh and marinated veggies. This recipe is perfect for vegetarian guests and large groups of hungry cyclists! Prep time: 10 minutes; Cook Time: 10 minutes (pasta) & 1+ hours chilling; Serves: 12+ people What you need:

• 500 g dried pasta (I used rotini), cooked
• 210 ml sundried tomatoes in oil (reserve oil), diced
• 340 ml (12 oz) marinated artichokes, drained and chopped
• 340 ml (12 oz) roasted red peppers, drained and chopped
• 284 ml canned sliced mushrooms, drained
• 200 ml canned pitted black olives, drained and chopped
• 2 small zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1/2 small red onion, thinly diced
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• 200 ml mini Bocconcini, sliced in half
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, thinly sliced
• Sundried Tomato Oil Dressing (see recipe below)
• salt and pepper to taste

What you do:

• Cook your pasta as per instructions and then cook it 1-2 minutes longer (I cooked mine 10 minutes)
• Drain the pasta and let cool

• While the pasta is cooking and cooling, start chopping!
• Chop the sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, marinated artichokes and black olives; drain the mushrooms and add to a large bowl

• Add the thinly-sliced zucchini and red onion

• In a separate bowl, add fresh cut tomatoes, the sliced basil and the sliced Bocconcini to the other ingredients

• Once the pasta is cooled, add the bowl of sliced marinated and fresh veggies to the pasta [ELIN’s TIP: use the pot you cooked the pasta in for your mixing bowl]

• Stir

• Add the Sundried Tomato Oil Dressing and stir

• Cover and refrigerate for one hour to overnight
• Salt and pepper to taste (personally, I found this needed a touch more salt after it had sat for a bit, but I am more of a salt person)
• Garnish with fresh basil

• Serve – perfect for large group get-togethers

• Enjoy! (shown with Garlic Lemon Chicken Thighs)

• Antipasto in a salad!

• Vegetarians rejoice!

• Great for next day leftovers!

Sundried Tomato Oil Dressing What you need:

• 1/3 cup reserved sundried tomato oil
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

What you do:

• Add all ingredients to a mason jar

• Shake shake shake

• Refrigerate until ready to use