Ranch Pasta Salad

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My dad was a big fan of salads. Even after my mother passed away, and he lived on his own for six years, he had a fresh salad every day; that, and his daily gin martini, was no doubt the secrets to his long and productive life.

When it comes to loving salads, the apple (Oooh, apple salad sounds good!) did not fall far from the tree, I love them as well. Whereas dad tended to stick with green salads, I like salads of all kinds. This week I was attempting to clean out my pantry (something that I have decided is a lost cause), and found half of a box of tricolor pasta. Because it fell out at my feet, and was generally irritating me, I decided to make a salad. I chopped up a variety of crisp, fresh vegetables to include with the cooked, drained, and cooled pasta, as well as one of my new favorite ingredients, salad seasoning.

This beauty keeps for 2 to 3 days in the fridge; if you want to have salad for a number of days running, but don’t want the hassle of fixing it, give this a try. Most of the kids that I know consider Ranch Dressing to be a food group, so they will love this.

Ranch Pasta Salad

1 c. Ranch Salad Dressing*
8 oz. tricolor rotini pasta
1 green pepper, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 radishes, diced
1 Melissa’s French Echalion shallot, finely diced**
1 English cucumber, diced
1 Roma tomato, seeded and chopped
1 T. Perfect Pinch Salad Supreme Seasoning

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Rinse thoroughly in cold water, and drain. Place cooked and cooled noodles into a medium mixing bowl, and toss with ranch dressing, to coat. With a rubber spatula, fold in all vegetables. Add salad seasoning and mix to combine.

Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. If you like the salad creamier, feel free to add more ranch dressing. Keeps in the refrigerator up to two days, perhaps three.

If you’d like to add protein and serve this as a main dish, add chopped egg, crumbled bacon, or julienne slices of cooked ham.

 *I prefer to make my own up fresh, but bottled works too.

 **Can substitute an equal amount of red onion.