Tomato Basil Pasta Salad

Saturday I attended my friend Sara's baby shower.  Yes, I survived, for those of you wondering.  It actually wasn't as bad as I was thinking it might be, but there were four pregnant women, three with babies, and the only other none pregnant/none mom was about 25 and not married, so this is kind of my life right now- pregnancy and babies everywhere.  It is seriously hard to avoid it.  These are my friends, so I want to see them, despite it being hard sometimes.  I do what I have to do.  I did go for beers with a bunch of the guys after work on Friday and that may become a more regular thing because that was seriously a breath of fresh air for me to be around them, even if crude jokes were told.  Hanging out with guy friends might actually be the key to escaping babyville when I need it.

Anyhoo, the shower was very cute, and Sara was all smiles opening one cute baby gift after another.

We were asked to bring an appetizer or dessert to the shower, which, in typical Brittney fashion, I forgot til the morning of the shower and was tweeting Jen to ask if we were supposed to bring something.  Also in typical- I decided to try and make something out of stuff I already had in the house, so I wouldn't have to go to the grocery store.  I remembered I have a fresh basil plant from my mom outside and noticed the large container of tomatoes I had sitting on the counter, and started brainstorming recipes around those items.  I basically came up with a tomato/basil pasta salad.

Tomato Basil Pasta Salad

1 lb your choice of pasta (I used Barilla Plus Penne)
1/3- 1/2 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic or red wine vinegar
2 cups of diced fresh tomatoes
1/2 cup diced marinated artichoke hearts
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 of a lemon
salt and pepper to taste
fresh mozzarella cheese/fresh parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

Chop your tomatoes and try to soak up some of the extra juice with paper towels.  Add to a bowl with the olive oil, vinegar, Italian seasoning and garlic.  Cover and place in the fridge for about two hours.  Also- you can use infused olive oil if you prefer.  I used half regular, half lemon infused olive oil.

Cook your pasta to al dente.  Drain and rinse in cold water.  Mix pasta with the tomato mixture, diced artichoke hearts, then add the fresh basil, squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper.  You can add the cheeses if you wish, I served mine with the cheeses on the side so they were optional.

At the baby shower, I served myself a healthy portion of pasta salad and followed that with a mouth watering chocolate cupcake.

Another bright side to baby showers- cake :)