Summer Pasta Salad

5:47 pm and I’m starving. Home from the office with a baby on my hip, a gorgeous evening outside, and a stroller parked at the back door just itching to get out. I want something quick, something fresh, something good.

I love this time of year with dinner growing right in the backyard garden. Save the slow-cooking for winter; right now, everything is so fresh and perfect, you just harvest and serve. The first cherry tomatoes and zucchini are ready to be picked off the vine – the calm before the upcoming veggie storm. The basil is growing a little too tall – time to pluck off the tops and use those little fragrant leaves. Oh, how I’ll miss this all six months from now…

I hold the basil leaves up to my baby’s nose, letting him take a sniff. His mouth opens wide, trying to eat it. An herbal connoisseur? Not quite, as he has the same reaction around petunias. And his blanket. And his own knuckles. Still, I’m charmed.

I find a bag of rotini in the cupboard, leftover dressing from the raspberry chicken salad, and it all comes together. Summer pasta salad.

Yes, this is exactly what I wanted.

Summer Pasta Salad

1/2 lb. veggie rotini
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 small zucchini, thinly sliced
Handful torn basil leaves
1/2 recipe of salad dressing (optional; can use extra EVOO and white wine vinegar instead)
Chopped hard-boiled egg (optional)
EVOO and white wine vinegar to taste
Kosher salt and cracked pepper to taste

Cook rotini to al dente. Meanwhile, place thinly sliced zucchini in bottom of large bowl. Drain cooked pasta and add hot pasta to zucchini, "cooking" the zucchini with the residual heat from the pasta. Let sit for five minutes. Add tomatoes and salad dressing; toss and let cool (place in freezer for a few mins to cool down if needed). Serve on plates with chopped egg, drizzling plate with extra EVOO and vinegar, seasoning with salt and pepper.