Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Easy Italian Pasta Salad

I'm starting my new Tasty Tuesday post with a super easy one:

Here is one of my guys' favorite summer recipes. All 3 of them love it! It actually comes from my husbands Grandmother. It's a very simple Italian pasta salad. Even people that can't cook a bit can make this dish! (I had a really yummy picture I took to put on this post but I must have accidentally erased it...sorry!)

What you'll need:
1 box of rotini
zesty Italian dressing
1-2 tomatoes cut up into chunks
sugar

Directions:
Cook the rotini until done. Run it under cold water until chilled, drain. Put the rotini in a bowl. Put a little of the Italian dressing (just the cheap store brand is what I use. I think it works better!) in the noodles so they don't stick. Throw in the tomatoes and put about a 1/4 cup of sugar in. Really just sugar to taste. Pour in more of the italian dressing. It takes more than just covering the noodles because the noodles soak it all up. So put quite a bit in even when it looks like too much. In a couple hours it'll be good. Mine always looks like it's swimming in dressing! Just keep tasting while you're adding the sugar though. My husband likes it a little sweet, if you want it more tangy use less sugar. Chill for at least 30 min. I put a really good lid on mine and shake it up right before I eat it so it gets mixed up really good. That's it! Simple as that. I take it to any dinner I go to that I have to bring a dish. It's so easy, cheap and you can make it the day before. Actually it tastes better when it has been in the fridge a couple days!

A couple ideas:
Try adding in different ingredients! My husband loves it when I add in a jar of sliced mushrooms. You can use fresh if you want. I like to add fresh banana peppers from my moms garden in it. My husbands grandma sometimes puts shredded cheese in. Go ahead play around with it. I think it's impossible to mess this up!

I hope you enjoy it!

Please share your favorite recipes with a Tasty Tuesday post. I'm looking forward to trying out your fabulous dishes!


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