Tuscan Italian Pasta Salad

I love when mistakes turn out to be a fantastic surprise!  The other weekend, we invited some friends over for a late afternoon BBQ.  Of course, in my last minute style, I raced to Trader Joe's that morning after church to grab the necessary ingredients for an Italian pasta salad.  I have never tried the Tuscan Italian salad dressing, but thought that it couldn't be much different than the usual Italian dressing (Kraft, Wishbone, or something similar) that I pick up at our local grocery store.  Well, I was wrong, it definitely didn't taste the same but boy was it delicious!!!!  

INGREDIENTS:

1 package of farfalle pasta

1 chunk of Havarti cheese (could substitute with another type of cheese)

1 can of black olives

1 Trader Joes red wine salami

3 peppers:  1 red, 1 orange, and 1 yellow

1 bottle of Trader Joe's Tuscan Italian dressing

So here's what I did, and I will tell you why this is the best pasta salad I have made ever!

1.  Cook pasta according to directions.  Drain and rinse with cold water.

2.  Chop all three peppers into small pieces.  (I only used about half of each pepper-saved the rest for vegetables and dip!)

3.  Slice the havarti cheese into bite-sized cubes.

4.  Drain and chop the olives into small pieces.

5.  Cut the salami into cubes.

6.  Put everything into a big bowl and add the Tuscan Italian Dressing.  You don't need much Italian dressing---I think I used about 1/3 to 1/2 of the bottle, but add to taste.

And this wonderful dressing will make a DELICIOUS twist to your Italian pasta salad!  Please take time and create this recipe---it's AMAZING!

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