MOP-it-up Pasta Salad Mushrooms, Peppers and Onions Pasta Salad with Red Pepper Pesto

  • Level: Easy
  • Yield: 10 side dish servings
  • Total: 18 min
  • Prep: 10 min
  • Cook: 8 min
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Ingredients

Red Pepper Pesto Sauce:

1 cup drained, packed roasted red peppers

2 small cloves garlic

1 (3-ounce) jar pignoli/pine nuts

1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, a couple of handfuls

Salt and pepper

1/3 cup grated Parmesan

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball it

Salad:

1 pound mini penne or gemelli pasta, cooked to al dente

1 cup drained marinated mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup Italian hot pepper rings, drained and chopped

1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1/2 large red onion, chopped

Directions

  1. Place a large pot of water on to boil for pasta. 
  2. Combine roasted peppers, garlic, pine nuts, parsley, salt and pepper and cheese in a food processor. Turn the processor on and stream in the extra-virgin olive oil to form a thick, pasty sauce forms. Adjust seasoning and transfer sauce to a large bowl. 
  3. Add salt to boiling water and cook pasta to al dente, drain and cool under running cold water. Drain well a second time. Add cooked, cooled pasta to the pesto sauce. Add remaining ingredients to the bowl and toss to coat salad evenly. Adjust salt and pepper to your taste and serve or chill up to 48 hours.

Let's Get Cooking!

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David L.

After reading the recipe we decided to jump out our happy little rut and try something new. We made it according to the recipe (no cheating or substitutions ? at least for the first time) and though we have had great success with many of Rachel?s recipes, this one missed the mark. The only real flavor in the salad was a bitter aftertaste. To see if was just our palates, we tried it out on my Wife?s coworkers (who would eat shredded cardboard in milk it was free) and it was left untouched.

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