Summer pasta salad with grilled vegetables
Instructions:
- The next time you fire up the grill, throw on the vegetables to make this luscious pasta salad. You can serve it with your cookout, or save it for a meal the next day—it tastes even better when the flavors have had a chance to develop.
- 8 oz. rotini, shells, or other short pasta;
- 3 Tbs. olive oil, divided;
- 2 Tbs. red wine vinegar;
- 2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.);
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes;
- 2 medium-size zucchini, cut lengthwise into quarters;
- 1 red bell pepper, quartered and seeded;
- 1 bunch scallions, trimmed;
- 1 cup pitted kalamata olives;
- 2 tbs. chopped fresh oregano;
- 2 tbs. chopped fresh basil.
- Prepare medium-hot charcoal fire, or preheat gas grill (or broiler).
- Bring large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook until al dente, about 7 minutes. Drain, and rinse thoroughly to cool. Transfer to large bowl, and toss with 1 Tbs. olive oil.
- Whisk together remaining olive oil, vinegar, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste in 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Add tomatoes, zucchini, red pepper, and scallions, and toss to coat with oil mixture. Thread cherry tomatoes on presoaked wooden skewers.
- Transfer zucchini and pepper to grill rack. Grill, turning occasionally, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and scallions to grill rack, and cook until all vegetables are tender and grill-marked, 2 to 4 minutes more. Remove from grill, and let stand until cool enough to handle.
- Chop zucchini, pepper, and scallions coarsely, and add vegetables to pasta. Slide tomatoes off skewers onto pasta. Add remaining marinade, olives and herbs, and toss well.