Pasta Salad

I'm a big fan of the idea of pasta salad, but somehow they never seem to deliver. The best I've had is actually a smoked mozzarella pasta salad at Whole Foods. Last night, feeling guilty over my usual cream and cheese laden dishes that have obviously added some heft to both Mike and me -- and with a wedding and a honeymoon to start considering -- I decided we needed something with more veggies for dinner on our first night back.

But I was stumped, until I started leafing through the latest Food Network Magazine and came across the Roasted-Pepper Pasta Salad. I did make some slight changes to it, though, with my pantry options that were available. The recipe called for toasted almonds and bocconcini. I didn't actually have bocconcini, but did have some mozzarella we'd bought for pizza last week. I also added some roasted onions to the mix and substituted farfalle for the mezzi rigatoni.

The combination of roasted garlic and lemon makes a really flavorful "sauce" for the pasta -- one of the biggest complains I usually have. I also loved the roasted peppers. Roasted peppers are so great! I always see the pros roasting them right over the gas flame on the oven ranges on tv. I did try that once and it kind of failed. Oven roasting is super easy, though. It's pretty hard to screw them up. You can use them in dishes like this or you can blend them into heavy cream and cream cheese for a great sauce -- and there I go with the cream and the cheese again!

Ah well. We'll see what kitchen adventures I can cook up over the coming months in order to try and get us into shape. I'm thinking pork roast this evening but not sure what I'll do with it just yet.