Favorite Pasta Salad!

[christinew]

I am in need of a fantastic pasta salad. Do any of you have a recipe you can pass onto me?

I really want to impress the crowd!:D

[Peggy C.]

My sister made a pesto pasta salad (say that 5x fast) for the 4th of July. It was really good, she used prepared pesto, toasted pine nuts added at the last minute, feta cheese, I think some olives and roated red peppers. And any pasta you'd like prepared.:)

[dotglee]

I had a yen for some pasta salad this week and all I knew was that I wanted shrimp in it. I found the following in the CL Complete cookbook. Not only was it fabulous, but DH could not believe the calorie count. It made great lunches too. The only change I made was that I used some gemelli pasta instead of shells, because it's what I had. Shells would be better. Good fresh tomatoes and some fresh basil really helped.

Online readers rated it a 4--It's more like 10 in my book.

Ingredients
1 pound medium shrimp, cooked and peeled
4 cups cooked medium seashell pasta (about 2 cups uncooked pasta)
2 cups chopped plum tomatoes (about 1 pound)
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1/4 cup chopped fresh or 4 teaspoons dried basil
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced

Directions
Prep Time: 8 hours, 10 minutes

Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours.

Nutrition Facts (Serves 8)
(per Serving): 197 calories
25.7 g carbohydrates; 83 mg cholesteral ;4.5 g fat; 249 mg sodium
13.2 g protein; 30 g calcium; 2.8 g iron; 1.5 g fiber

[gertdog]

I wonder how browneye's awesome roasted potato salad recipe would translate into pasta salad. I bet it would be really good!

Here's the thread where it's posted:
http://cookinglight.com/vbb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7479&highlight=potato+salad

[SusanL]

... you said you had it for lunches, about how long did it last for lunches? I try to make something that will last a few days and hope that this does because I am going to try it this weekend! Looks GREAT!!

[JJ40]

There was a pasta salad in July CL (???? I think...or June...) with arugula, zucchini, feta cheese and a vinaigrette dressing. It is very good--check it out!

Julie :)

[christinew]

I will check it out....I love feta! THanks,