Kate's Space A Writers Cafe

Shannon’s I Don’t Use A Recipe Pasta Dish

I was at my friend Shannon's on Sunday and she made this amazing and super simple pasta dish. It was incredibly yummy. I made some today to last me the weekend now that the  hubs is off golfing. He doesn't like veggie dishes so when he is gone I go wild! This pasta is tasty and just enough kick that even a wimpy spice eater like me can dig it!

2 pounds pasta of your choosing, cooked to al dente and rinsed in cold water
1 large cucumber, peeled and diced
1 yellow pepper diced
1 orange pepper diced
1 (1 pound? 12oz? whatever the small size is) bag frozen peas, thawed
1 bag frozen corn, thawed
1 container cherry or whatever smallish type tomatoes, I halve them as it lets the flavors out to mingle with the rest of the ingredients
handful sweet and spicy pickles finely diced
If you like olives (I don't) a good dose of those couldn't hurt either, and you could also dice up some cheese and throw in there too. Basically this is a kitchen sink kind of dish!

Normally I'd also add like an 1/8 or 1/4 of a sweet onion, but Isabel doesn't like onion =)

Toss all of the above together in a ginormous bowl, salt and pepper generously

Now for the dressing: I used about 2 cups mayo and probably close to 6 oz red wine vinegar, a couple tablespoons of sugar and a maybe a quarter cup milk. Whisk those together in a separate bowl, adding a bit more mayo or vinegar to adjust the flavor. It should be very bold tasting as the flavor will get washed out by the pasta. Then splash some of the pickle juice in there to kick it up another notch. If you can't find sweet/spicy pickles you could always just use sweet pickles in the salad and add a bit of cayenne pepper to the dressing.

You could also use like a Newman's italian dressing, they make a greek italian that is pretty good and make this an italian salad. I like the creamy version myself.

Pour the dressing over the pasta and veggies and toss all around to mingle and marry =) It shouldn't be soggy wet, but everything should be evenly coated. If it seems like you are short on dressing, you can always mix up a little more.