Pesto Pasta Salad

For my own records and for someone who has already asked me for the recipe, I thought I would go ahead and record what I did for that salad last night.

INGREDIENTS:

16 oz brown rice pasta (Used shells but think I will use rotini next time.)
20-30 leaves of basil
extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar
ground sea salt
4-5 cloves garlic
1 coarse chopped yellow bell pepper
1 coarse chopped orange bell pepper
2 coarse chopped roma tomatoes
5-6 sliced crimini mushrooms
1/4 vidalia onion (Did not have this when I made it but thinking of adding it or the same amount of a purple onion next time)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cook pasta according to package instructions. The package I had said 14-16 minutes over med/hot... I think next time I will go for something a little more al dente so 12-13 minutes. While boiling that, pick all the leaves off the basil stems and throw them in whatever pesto-maker you have along with garlic cloves, olive oil and salt. I would tell you how much of that but I am an eye-ball cooker so I have no idea. I used the Magic Bullet that we got as a wedding present (THANKS PETIE and MICHAEL!) and it came out fabulous!! I also chopped and sliced all the veggies and things while the pasta was cooking. Once pasta is cooked, drain thoroughly and dump into whatever bowl you plan to serve the salad in. Mix in enough olive oil to keep the pasta from sticking to itself and then dump in the pesto mixture and vinegar (To taste or however you eyeball things) Cover the bowl and put in the fridge to cool. Store the chopped/sliced veggies in a separate container. Because I started way before I needed to, my pasta stayed in the fridge for 3 and a half hours and I think that allowed all the pesto to really soak into all the pasta. I took everything out about an hour before serving and mixed in all the veggies along with summore vinegar because it tasted a bit too salty. Then put everything back in the fridge so the veggies can soak in everything too. When you're ready, take everything out of the fridge and serve!

TRIUMPH