Roasted Vegetable Pasta Salad

Memorial day has always been the unofficial start of Summer for me, and Am kicking it off with this roasted vegetable pasta salad.

This Italian pasta salad  is full of good for you ingredients and everyone’s favorite one Pasta. It’s no secret I love pasta, I grew up with my mother making fresh pasta

almost daily.We lived on a farm in the hills of Tuscany, my mother and father worked the land and we reaped the rewards in the most fresh, delicious food.

I can remember my Mama up before dawn  dressed and standing at the counter rolling out the pasta dough on a wooden board my father make for her.

Yes, there’s nothing better then fresh pasta, but if your looking for quick and easy then store bought is the way to go. With thousands of shapes and brands you can find any kind your looking for, from fresh to dry and everything in between. At the restaurants the raviolis, gnocchi and lasagna are made by hand the rest are store bought and delicious.

Make It Yours

In this vegetable pesto pasta salad I used fusilli, the funny corkscrew shape pasta. But any shape pasta works in this recipe, even gluten free or whole wheat. What ever pasta you choose be sure not to over cook it .

Stop the cooking process by running cold water over the pasta. This whole recipe is customizable from the pasta shape to what kind of vegetables you use.

I  use what ever vegetables I have on hand in this recipe I put in a can drained chickpeas for crunch. The one thing I wouldn’t change in this recipe is the dressing,

the pesto vinaigrette makes the dish burst with vibrant color and fresh Summer flavors. This pasta salad is prefect for the warmer weather as a side dish or add some grilled shrimp or chicken and you have a prefect dinner any night of the night.

If you make this please leave me a comment and don’t forget to tag me on Instagram hearing from you is my favorite thing.

Ingredients

• 1/2 lbs. fusilli
• 1 zucchini sliced
• 1 red and 1 green bell pepper
• 2 ears of corn
• 1 can chickpeas drained
• 1 red onion
• 3 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 cup Italian dressing divided
• 1/4 cup prepared pesto sauce
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to package direction run under cold water
2. Preheat oven to 375
3. Mix Pesto sauce with the Italian dressing
4. Mix all of the ingredients with 1/2 cup of the Italian pesto dressing
5. Roast vegetables 20 minutes
6. Toss pasta and  vegetables with the resevered Italian pesto dressing
7. Sprinkle with Additional parmesan and 2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley