Potluck Pasta Salad

For Saturday's potluck they had me listed as bringing a main dish and since I live so far away from the park that this was at, I spent all Friday evening trying to come up with something to bring as a cold main dish that was also creative. Finally I settled on the pasta salad even though I was well aware everyone else would be bringing a one too. I figured oh well, next time they will just have to ask me, the cupcake girl, to bring cupcakes!

My pasta salad actually turned out quite well in comparison to some of the others that were being offered though (Dylan and I made sure to sample a bit of each one) but there was a quinoa salad that was quite tasty.

I started my salad off by cooking one box each of plain and tri-colored spiral pasta, draining and setting aside to cool. Next I started chopping rainbow carrots, onion, garlic scapes, red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes and zucchini which was then added to a big bowl. I also added cooked, chopped bacon and fresh mozzarrella. 

In a separate bowl I whisked together olive oil, white wine vinegar (this was Dyl's choice), salt, pepper and fresh chopped basil until combined. 

I poured a couple of spoonfuls of dressing onto the pasta and stirred to coat, doing the same with the vegetables and finally combined the vegetables with the pasta. I added enough black pepper and vinegar dressing just to get a good taste going, but not so much that it would overpower the wonderful flavors already going on.

This really did turn out great! We ended up having this for dinner Friday night, having more than enough for the potluck on Saturday and we will also be enjoying the last of it tonight!