Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Basic Artichoke Pasta Salad

The spring fundraiser at my daughter's school had the kids selling magazine subscriptions, and there were some good deals. So I'm now subscribing to Rolling Stone at a dirt cheap price, and for the heck of it, I'm also getting Men's Fitness, which is more vapid and shallow than I remember. I used to pick up that slick magazine when I was on the academic job hunt in '02. On my way to or returning from an on-campus visit, I needed to read something that didn't require too much thinking, and Men's Fitness did the trick.

Mrs. Nasty got a bunch of magazines, and one of hers is part of the Rachael Ray ubiquity regime, Every Day with Rachael Ray. So I got this basic recipe from that magazine, but I've modified it -- Nasty style. 

Ingredients:

A box of tri-color rotini, cooked

1 jar of marinated artichokes

1 roasted red pepper, chopped into tiny pieces (I got mine from a jar)

half of a can of black olives, drained and chopped (use kalamata olives if you want to get fancy)

5 slices of hard salami, cut into tiny rectangles

Healthy dose of parmesan cheese, maybe a 1/2 to a full cup

Healthy dose of low-fat shredded mozzarella cheese

Smidge of dried thyme

Smidge of dried dill

Salt and pepper to taste

You cook the pasta, drain it, and then toss in the artichokes with the marinade from the jar. Then put in all of the other ingredients. 

Next time I make this, I'll probably used diced chicken breast instead of salami and maybe add some green olives and more artichokes. And I have fresh dill weed in the garden, so I might as well use that too.