Now that summer is approaching us, more and more folks will be eating outside — whether they’re lounging on the beach, planning a picnic at the park, or camping in the woods. This pasta salad makes an excellent side dish that will appropriately accompany many summer-time meals, such as burgers, hot dogs, BBQ, sandwiches, etc. These savory Italian ingredients are so delicious that this pasta salad can even stand alone as its own meal.

Side dish, serves 8-10

Here’s What You Need:

12 oz box of tri-colored rotini pasta

8 oz log of fresh mozzarella

8 oz stick of pepperoni

1 can of large, pitted black olives

1 medium broccoli crown

¼ cup finely grated parmesan cheese

½ cup Italian salad dressing (add more to taste)

3 tablespoons cannabis-infused extra virgin olive oil

A pinch of salt

How to Make Italian Pasta Salad:

To begin, add a pinch of salt to a large pot of boiling water. Follow the instructions on the back of the pasta box in order to cook the tri-colored rotini until it is perfectly al dente – this should roughly take 8 minutes.

Drain the pasta in a strainer and set it to the side to allow the pasta to completely cool.

While the pasta is cooling, slice your pepperoni stick into thin circles or coins. Proceed to roughly chop these pepperoni coins into bite size pieces and add the pieces to a large glass bowl.

After all the pepperoni is chopped, chop your fresh mozzarella into bite size squares. Add the chunks of mozzarella to your large bowl.

Then, open your can of black olives and drain out any water. You can either roughly chop or thinly slice your olives into rings (depending on your mood) and add the olive bits to the bowl.

Next, using a knife, remove as much of the broccoli stalks as you can, and finely mince the broccoli crown until the head resembles green dust. Add the “broccoli confetti” to your bowl.

Once the pasta is cool to the touch (you don’t want the heat from the pasta to melt the cheese) add the rotini to your bowl, giving all the ingredients a quick stir.

Add your ½ cup of Italian salad dressing to a measuring cup. Then, add the cannabis-infused extra virgin olive oil, whisking these two ingredients together with a fork.

Finally, pour the Italian dressing/cannabis-olive oil mixture over the pasta salad and stir thoroughly to ensure all the ingredients are covered in the dressing. Sprinkle your parmesan cheese over the top of the salad and lightly toss one last time.

It’s recommended that you initially use only the suggested amount of ½ cup of Italian dressing on the full bowl of pasta salad. You can then allow your guests to pour more dressing over their individual servings. Topping your salad with additional dressing prior to consumption is also strongly recommended as the initial dressing will most likely be absorbed by the rotini while being stored in the refrigerator.

Wrap the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the pasta salad to chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour. Cold pasta salad tastes much better than room temperature pasta salad.

Serve and enjoy!