pasta salad with bottled dressing

[lauren75]

I guess the title says it all. Does anybody have a good recipe that uses a bottled variety?

[Shelby]

I make a pasta salad about once a week using bottled Ranch dressing. We eat it up!

Macaroni, cooked and drained

Chopped cherry tomatoes

Chopped red onion

Chopped fresh dill

Thawed, frozen peas

Can of tuna, drained

Salt

Pepper

Lemon pepper

I throw all of the above in a bowl and put Ranch all over it, stir and eat!

[Chris Hennes]

This is the tried and true "family recipe" my mother uses, as far as I remember it. Note that if you don't like olives, you won't like this salad!

1 box rigatoni

1 bottle Italian dressing

1 cup coarsely chopped black olives

1 finely chopped red bell pepper

Grated parmesan cheese to taste

1) Make the rigatoni, leaving it pretty al dente

2) Rinse the pasta in cold water to chill

3) Combine with half the dressing bottle and other ingredients

4) Chill until ready to serve

5) Before serving, stir in the rest of the bottle of dressing

In fact, the way the recipe was originally made was with canned black olives and canned parmesan, and as a child I thought it was great. I find that it also cleans up pretty well by replacing the prepackaged stuff with "the real deal," especially the parmesan and the olives.