A Fiery Pasta Salad

Well, much to my chagrin, I never did get my asparagus fix. :( Instead I was running around shopping for clothes for my husband to wear to his sisters wedding this weekend. The bright side was that I bought myself an awesome new hat for the beach! Now if only the sun would come out! LOL! Seven days of rain in the forecast - WHAT THE HELL!! I should have bought a new umbrella, then we would have sun! LOL! What I did manage to whip up, however, was a tasty pasta salad. Originally, this salad was going to be a hot and creamy side dish for the RWOP recipe contest but, quite frankly, I am really sick of cream cheese at this point and, with summer coming, my tastes are steering towards the lighter side of things. Therefore, I ditched the cream cheese and came up with this recipe instead, which we ate warm but was also just as good right out of the refrigerator the next day. As ususal, I didn't measure anything so the measurements provided below are relative estimates. If you would like to recreate this just keep tasting as you go and you'll be fine. I ended up getting a little heavy handed with the red pepper flakes so this turned out quite spicy but I though it went really well with the grilled steak we had with it. Husband, who it a little more sensitive to spicey flavors,thought it was a little hot but good nonetheless.

Fiery Italian Pasta Salad

1 pound cooked pasta (I used farfalle)
1/2 C shopped frozen spinach
2-3 cloves crushed garlic
2Tbs olive oil
2 roasted red peppers, chopped
6-8 sundried tomatoes, packed in oil, chopped
2-3T red pesto with sundried tomatoes (I buy this jarred at ocen state job lot)
1T good seasonings italian dressing seasoning
1-2T red wine vinegar
1/4C romano cheese
few shakes crushed red pepper flakes

I sauted the spinach in the oil and garlic in a sauce pan until everything was cooked and heated through, then I added the rest of the ingredients except the romano cheese and red pepper flakes. Once it was all stirred to gether I poured it over the hot pasta and tossed it all together. Then, in went the cheese and red pepper and it was tossed again one more time before serving.

YUM!