Prima Vera Salad

Sharing a pasta salad I made for a 4th of July picnic.  Our neighbors invited a group to join them for burgers and brats at the outdoor picnic area in our community.  Everyone brought a salad or a dessert and I chose to bring this salad - and it was a hit!

Don't remember where I found this recipe....but I found it in my old recipe box, written on an index card, in my handwriting.   Since I get a lot of recipes online in recent years I am thinking this is a recipe from long ago...

Prima Vera Salad

1 70z package of cheese tortellini

1 medium sweet red pepper, cut in small strips or pieces

1 cup of broccoli florets

1 medium carrot, thinly sliced

1/3 cup pitted black olives

Dressing

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup pesto

1/4 cup of milk

1/4 teaspoon pepper

This recipe can be doubled or tripled...I made a big batch for this occasion.

I used the cheese tortellini from Costco and used a red and yellow pepper since I was making a large batch...and not using the olives in case someone did not like them.

I chopped everything up and made sure the broccoli was in very small pieces so it would be easy to eat.

I rinsed the broccoli...

Cook the tortellini according to the package...I realized I should have used a bigger pot!  I use the wooden spoon trick to keep it from boiling over.

Drain and rinse the tortellini

Mix together the mayo, milk (I used half and half), and pesto and blend together.

Add the pepper ( I used coarse ground pepper ) and mix well.

Mix together the tortellini and veggies in a large bowl...

pour the dressing over the salad...

and mix together well...and chill till serving.

I was searching for a bowl to take this salad to the picnic are and found my old ( VINTAGE???) Tupperware bowl.  How old ?  It has the Tupperware Seal ( a cute little seal ) on the lid!  I forgot to take a photo, but earlier in the day I filled a small Tupperware bowl with water and popped it in the freezer.  Before I put the salad in this bowl I put the frozen bowl, lid facing down, in the bottom and piled the salad on top.  Even though I was taking this salad in a cooler with ice I thought the ice inside the dish would keep the salad cool ( and safe!) while it was out on the picnic buffet.  I learned this trick years ago and always do it when taking a salad to a summer event.

It was a great time and lots of fun...before we had dessert a rainstorm came by and we huddled under the umbrellas.  After the storm there was a double rainbow !   Not sure you can see it here...

A great day, but at the end of the rainbow was COVID!  The next day we heard someone tested positive and two days later I was sick.  Two days after that my husband got the bug.  We were pretty sick...all those people who say it is just a cold...well, that was not us.  Fever, chills, cough...we both ended up on anti-viral meds and after a few days felt better.  We stayed isolated and just ventured out this weekend!  We never had Covid before and we joked we thought we would never get it....WRONG!  I guess this is just a way of life now and this virus will be with us forever.

Very happy to be feeling good and back to normal life!

Did you attend a 4th of July picnic?  What dish did you bring?  I would love to hear - thanks so much for stopping by

Our New Vista!

Have a wonderful week !