Kitchen Sink Pasta Salad

I'm constantly trying to think of new ideas for quick lunches during the week.  Usually this means chopping a bunch of vegetables Sunday night so they are ready to throw into quick salads throughout the week.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE salads, but lately I've been getting a little bored with them.  As I looked into my extremely messy well stocked fridge today to plan the next few days I remembered a bag of frozen tortellini my mom gave me a few weeks ago.  I also saw a bowl full of already chopped veggies that needed to be used up stat!  And that's how this pasta salad was born.  Feel free to change up the veggies according to whatever you need to use up have in your fridge.  Enjoy!

Kitchen Sink Pasta Salad
(6 servings - depending how starving you are)

Ingredients:


Dressing

• 1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 c. balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 c. white wine vinegar
• 1/2 t crushed garlic (or 1 garlic clove minced)
• 1 t dried parsley
• 1/2 t italian seasoning
• 1/2 t dried basil
• 1/2 t sea salt

• 1/2 t basil
• 1/2 c chopped cucumber**
• 1 chopped carrot
• 1/2 chopped green pepper
• 1/4 roughly diced yellow onion
• 10 kalamata olives, roughly chopped
• 2 lb frozen cheese tortellini***
• 1/2 c diced fresh mozzarella cheese
• 12-15 pepperoni slices, chopped (optional)

Instructions:
-Boil water for pasta, and cook according to directions on package (mine took 5 minutes)
-Whisk together ingredients for dressing in small mixing bowl
-Once pasta is done cooking drain in colander and run cold water over to stop the cooking process and cool the noodles
-Add pasta, chopped veggies, and dressing to large bowl, stir to combine
-Toss in mozzarella and pepperoni (if using) and give one final stir

NOTES:
**I would probably leave out the cucumber next time I make this, it definitely was not my favorite part of the salad and seemed a little out of place.  Zucchini might be a better choice.
***I love the cheesy tortellini in this, but any medium sized noodle would be wonderful.


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