Summer Vegetable Pasta Salad With Balsamic-Blue Cheese Dressing

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Dump it into a colander and rinse with cold water so it stops cooking. Transfer the cooled pasta to a large serving dish and coat with a good amount of olive oil. This is going to be part of the dressing and will keep the pasta from drying out and sticking together while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2. Chop the cucumber and throw that in with the pasta.

3. Heat a bit of olive oil in a skillet over low heat. Add the garlic and about 30 seconds later, add the slices of red onion. Cook them until they begin to caramelize and things are starting to brown in the bottom of the pan. At this point, splash in a little balsamic vinegar to deglaze it. Dump the onions and garlic on top of the pasta.

4. Using the same pan, cook the chopped tomatoes and corn for a couple of minutes until the tomatoes are softened a bit. Add this to the pasta bowl as well, juice and all.

5. Toast the pine nuts and immediately toss them in while they’re hot.

6. While the pasta mixture is still warm, stir in the pieces of blue cheese along with a generous amount of balsamic vinegar. The blue cheese will melt in with the balsamic vinegar and create a delicious dressing! Add plenty of salt and pepper and stir well!

*I JUST MADE A DIFFERENT VARIATION OF THIS TONIGHT AND IT’S SOOOO AWESOME! CHECK IT OUT. DINNER FOR 2*

1. Toast 2-3 T. pine nuts and dump them in a big serving bowl.

2. Dump 1/8 cup sour cream, 2-3 T. blue cheese, and 1.5 T. olive oil on top of the nuts.

3. Melt 1/2 T. butter in a skillet over med-high heat. Chop 1 small red onion and saute it with 1 tsp sugar until it begins to caramelize.

4. Add 1 small diced red bell pepper and 1 small diced yellow bell pepper to the onions and saute just a minute or two. You still want them to maintain a crisp bite. Dump the veggies in with the pine nuts.

5. Meanwhile, boil about 5 oz (150g) pasta according to package directions. I just used regular spaghetti noodles. When they’re done, drain and dump them into the veggie/pine nut mixture while they’re still piping hot. Stir it around to melt the blue cheese.

6. Take 1/2 lb cherry tomatoes, cut them in half, and add them to the pasta.

7. Slice up about 6 black olives and toss them in as well.

8. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Toss is all together.

Serve warm. It’s excellent!