Olive Bar Pasta Salad Recipe

The beauty of this pasta salad is its flexibility. Head over to the supermarket’s olive bar (or the jarred condiments aisle) and load up your cart with whatever looks good: roasted red peppers, grilled artichokes, herb-infused olives, marinated beans or mushrooms—try to use at least three options for the most exciting pasta salad. Tossed together with a garlicky sun-dried-tomato base, all that’s missing is some mozzarella and a few handfuls of basil. Serve this one solo, maybe with some arugula, and call it dinner; or bring it as a side to a picnic or barbecue—the longer it sits, the better it tastes. If you can find roasted garlic or garlic confit, use 4 cloves instead of 2 fresh, smashed into a paste with the flat side of a knife.