Mom's Pasta Salad

If someone asked Josie and me what one dish we think of when we think of summer I know that both of us would 100% answer our mom's pasta salad. Our mom made this pasta salad all summer long whether it was for a pool party we were hosting or for a BBQ we were attending. I may be biased but I think this is the best pasta salad in the world.

Mom's Pasta Salad Serves a large crowd!

• 1.5-2 boxes of Tri-Color Rotini (I use Barilla, has never failed me), cooked, drained, rinsed with cold water. DO NOT OVERCOOK or you will get mushy pasta salad and no one wants that.
• 1 packaged sliced Pepperoni, slice in half
• 1/2 of a large red onion, diced into tiny pieces
• 1 jar of Artichoke Hearts, chopped (I usually buy the jar where the artichokes are soaked in olive oil and Italian seasoning)
• 1 pint of Cherry or Grape Tomatoes, halved or quartered depending on preference
• 1 small can of sliced Black Olives
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese 
• 1 small jar of diced Pimentos (you will only use about 1-2 tablespoons of these)
• 1 bottle of semi-homemade Italian Dressing (We ALWAYS use the Good Seasons dry Italian dressing mix. You can buy 2 packages of the mix and it comes with the dressing container. I swear it is delicious.)

All of the ingredients.

The hardest part of this pasta salad, and it really isn't very hard, is just preparing all of the ingredients. Get the pasta cooked and cooled. Chop the onion, slice the pepperoni, slice the tomatoes, chop the artichoke hearts....you're done! Place the pasta in a very large bowl and prepare to add all of the ingredients.

Everything all prepared and ready to be mixed.

I usually wait to mix everything until 30 minutes-1 hour before I am going to serve it. I like to add everything but the dressing and cheese to the pasta and mix. Then I add the bottle of dressing and the cheese and mix again. A full bottle will work for 1.5-2 boxes, use less for 1 box of pasta. 

The pasta salad half eaten, I forgot to take a photo 'till after people ate, oh well!

The great part about this pasta salad is that it tastes amazing as left-overs! Joe and I ate some for dinner the night after (and a few noodles for breakfast, shhhhh). If you invite me over, can I please bring the pasta salad?