Cooking with Your Mom

Servings: 8-10

Ingredients:

• 6 oz garden rotini
• ¼ of a red onion (sliced thin) (more or less to your taste)
• ½ of a green bell pepper (sliced thin, or chopped)
• ½ of a red bell pepper (sliced thin, or chopped)
• 2 oz grape or cherry tomatoes (halved or quartered)
• ½ of a cucumber (halved and sliced ¼” thick)
• 2 oz cheddar (diced)
• 2 oz pepperoni (sliced into quarters)
• 1 oz banana pepper rings (chopped)
• 1-2 TBS of the juice from the banana peppers
• 2.25 oz sliced black olives (drained)
• ½ cup Italian dressing
• ½ tsp salt (or to taste)
• ½ tsp ground black pepper (or to taste)
• Cajun seasoning of your choice (optional)
• ¼ cup shredded parmesan (optional)

Directions:
Prepare pasta as directed to al dente. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Pour pasta back into pan or a large mixing bowl (make sure the bowl is fairly large; this pasta salad grows). Add in all other ingredients, except the parmesan cheese. Stir well to coat. Sprinkle parmesan over the top.

Refrigerate at least one hour before serving (or overnight). The longer, the better!

Tips & Tricks:

You can really use any type of pasta you want here. Every now and again, Skinner pasta will have Texas shaped pasta and I will use those!
If you don’t have red bell pepper, you could also use yellow, orange, or a combination. Any type of sweet pepper will work!
I like to use 2 small seedless cucumbers sliced ¼” thick. The skins are thinner and the seeds are smaller.
You can really use any type of cheese you like here. I like to take a cheese stick or two and slice them into ¼” pieces.
I like to use the thicker cut pepperoni (or salami rounds), and sometimes the mini pepperonis.
Any type of Italian dressing will work. I like the zesty Italian, and the Olive Garden Italian is really great as well! If you feel like your pasta is too dry, you can add more as needed.