Pizza Pasta Salad

First, I know it's been a few weeks, but I had back to back trips which prevented me from cooking and blogging.

Ok, now down to business.  The new meal for this week is Pizza Pasta Salad.  This was the second time that I have made this meal.  I made it up on Sunday** for Monday's dinner and left overs for lunches this week.  This is a good summer meal since it's a cold dinner.  Being in hot, humid Houston I'm always looking for cool meals like this.  (**So I wrote this blog and then forgot to publish.  Oops.  I made this a week ago and have a new recipe to share in my next blog!)

I think the next time I make this I might do 2 sweet peppers in different colors.  I also might leave the olives whole instead of chopping them or I might leave them out all together.

Ingredients:
Salad:
Sausage (or pepperoni) - I used pre-cooked sausage, 1 link (2 come in the package)
mozzarella - cubed (I used the whole ball which is ~6 oz I think)
1 cup mushroom, sliced
2 lbs tomatoes (I used 1 large tomato and 1 medium guy), chopped
1 sweet pepper (yellow this time and it added color nicely), chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 cup olives, diced (but again I think it's better to leave them whole or maybe halved; oh I used both green and black, but I think black work better for this)
1/2 lb pasta, cooked and drained (and drizzled with EVOO to keep from sticking) I used rotini this time
Vinaigrette:
6 tbsp EVOO
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, pasted (this is where you dice it and then smush it really well with the side of you knife)
salt & pepper
seasonings (I used Italian seasoning and oregano)

Salad - mix all the ingredients together!  Vinaigrette - mix vinegar with seasonings and garlic.  Whisk.  Stream in EVOO.  This should combine (the original recipe says thicken, but I don't really see this).  Then drizzle the vinaigrette over the pasta salad.  Chill and serve cold!