Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Pasta Salad

• servings: 6-8 servings
• active time: 30 minutes
• total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 tsp kosher salt

1 lb fusilli pasta, or other short pasta that makes you happy (penne, macaroni, bow ties)

7 oz feta, crumbled (I’m convinced the feta HUNK is better and then crumbling with your hands, but if you don’t like doing a water rescue of feta floating in juice then pre-crumbled is fine)

½ red onion, finely sliced

½ lb cherry tomatoes, halved

1 x 6 inch cucumber, halved lengthwise, finely sliced ½ inch thick (if meal prep this I cut the cucumber lengthwise and then take a spoon to de-seed the cucumber so it doesn’t turn to mush)

2 tightly packed cups baby arugula

3 lightly packed cups basil leaves, roughly torn (3 cups is an exaggeration, I take whatever my meager plant can give me, sometimes it’s 1 cup, sometimes it’s 3, but whatever you have is good, more basil never hurt anyone. Basil at the store is expensive though since they’re fragile, so if 3 cups seems excessive you’re right, it is, so just whatever amount from 1-3 cups)

1 cup (5 oz) drained sliced Kalamata olives (I could see theoretically how olives would be good in this but I think they’re the worst vegetable that natural selection has provided, but if you’ve been fooled by big olive into liking them then toss them in. I’ve personally never put an olive anywhere near my kitchen, so I don’t know if it’s good.)

1 cup (6 oz) red pepper strips (from a jar), drained and cut into 1¼ inch pieces

2½ cups (12 oz) artichokes (from a jar), drained and cut into 1 inch pieces

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto

½ cup pasta cooking water

2 x 8 oz jars sun-dried tomato strips in oil (including the oil)

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

½ tightly packed cup (2 oz) finely grated parmesan

1 tsp finely grated garlic (1 large clove) (I don’t pre grate the garlic, it goes into the food processor to be chopped like everything else)

½ tsp kosher salt

⅓ cup pine nuts, toasted or not toasted, up to how much time and how fancy you’re feeling

Directions

Cook pasta—Bring a pot of water to a boil with the salt. Add the pasta and cook as per the package directions plus 1-2 minutes to make it very soft. Just before draining, scoop out ½ cup of the pasta cooking water and set aside—we need this for the pesto. Drain the pasta, briefly rinse with cold tap water, then shake off the excess water well. Leave in the colander to dry and cool to room temperature.

Pesto—Place all the pesto ingredients, except the pine nuts, in a food processor. Use all the oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes and don’t forget the pasta cooking water. (It’s fine if it’s still hot.) Blitz for 15 seconds on low until the sun-dried tomatoes are smooth, scraping the sides as needed. Add the pine nuts and blitz again until they are very finely chopped.

Assemble—Set aside one-fourth of the feta for topping. Place the pasta and all the sun-dried tomato pesto in a very large bowl. Toss well, then add the remaining salad ingredients and toss again.

Tumble into a large serving bowl. Crumble the remaining feta on top and serve.