A few days ago I posted about the Barilla Collezione Pasta I received from Bzzagent.

I received the Casarecce which hails from Sicily. This pasta pairs well with pesto, eggplant, ricotta and basil. It is one of my favorite shapes because sauces stick to it very well.

After asking my Facebook friends and family for some recipes, I finally decided I was going to make a version of pasta salad that my mother actually suggested. Unfortunately, it doesn’t include pesto, eggplant, ricotta or basil but it still ended up very tasty.

First I boiled the pasta.

A watched pot never boils but this thing seriously took an hour to finish.

See how the shape of the pasta is like a scroll?

 

These are my pasta salad fixings. We’ve got broccoli, tomatoes, pepperoni, salamis, provolone and olives. First up is the tomatoes.

Then we got the broccoli.

Seriously, some of the broccoli florets were pre-pubescent.

Pepperoni and Salami.

Then I moved on to the provolone cheese.

And second to last, we have the olives.

It looked sooooo good at this point.

I only had one last step, the Italian dressing.

I got fat-free dressing for no real reason.

Voila! Here it is, topped with a bit of pecorino romano.

It was a hit at the party!

I enjoyed this pasta a lot. It smelled great when I was cooking and it actually tasted good just on its own. Barilla had already been my choice brand of pasta but I will definitely purchase the Collezione line going forward.

Disclaimer: I received these products for free from Bzzagent. All opinions are my own and do not reflect Bzzagent or the Barilla Brand.