Petrified Pasta Salad

If you want a favorite and easy every day dish to serve around dinner time, here it is! The pastabilities are endless for any holiday with this one. Today, we are going Halloween style. Who knew you could make something so delicious look so haunting!

This one hits home for me. I love pasta, even if its cold. Share this one with friends or hog it all to yourself! It's that good.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of pasta. Halloween style of course! I found pumpkins, spider webs and cats!

• 1/2 tbsp of oil. We used Olive Oil

• 5 cups of water

• 1 brick of cheese (feel free to improvise here with your favorite cheese) In this recipe I used Colby Jack and Munster.

• 1/2 cup Italian dressing (homemade or store bought)

• 1 small chopped sweet onion

• 1 can of Olives. I used one can of Black Olives and 1/2 can of Pimento Green Olives cut into halves. Green Pimento Olives have a red pimento in the middle so it looks like Red Eyes!👹.

• Pepperoni to taste. I cut them into crescents so they look like Red Half Moons🌗!

Prepare

Step 1

In a 3 quart sauce pan, add 5 cups of water and 1 tbsp. of oil. Bring to a boil. We add the oil to the boiling water because it helps the pasta not clump together when we put it in!

Step 2

Throw your pasta in and let it cook as directed on the package for timing.

Step 3

While the pasta is cooking, cut your cheese into little bite size squares. Additionally, slice then cut your pepperoni. (you could buy pre-cut and save some time)

Step 4

Start halving your Olives and set aside for later.

Step 5

Once your pasta is cooked, pour it carefully into a colander to drain the water. Then, run cold water over it and drain again. Make sure the pasta is cooled down before you start incorporating the rest of it. If it is too hot the cheese will melt... unless thats the look you're going for!

Step 6

Once the past a is cooled, place into a large bowl. Then add your cheese, pepperoni, olives and salad dressing. Mix until everything is coated with dressing. (The pasta will absorb some of the dressing so save another 1/4 cup and pour just before serving)

There you have it! Petrified Pasta Salad! Bonus points if you have these Tongs to serve with 👻 Lettuce know what you think!