Italian Pasta "Dump" Recipe posted by nancy on 8/26/08
A crowd pleaser that's so easy using Trader Joes items and/or similar ones from another store!
1 One pound bag of penne pasta
1 Jar (10 oz) Roasted Red Pepper &
Artichoke Tapenade
1 Container (7 oz) Frozen Sun Dried
Tomato Pesto
1 Container (7 oz) Fresh Regular Basil
Pesto
2 Tbls. of Crushed Garlic from the jar
1 Cup of Parmesian/Romano cheese grated
2 Cans sliced black olives - 3.8 oz ea
2 Cans sliced mushrooms - 4 oz ea
*Optional: Pre-cooked sliced chicken breast strips or shrimp or whatever you want to alter it from a vegetarian dish.
** Also, you could bolster it as a vegie dish by adding steamed(pop-em in a glass covered dish in the micro) bite-sized vegies (broc, green beans, asparagus).
***Note: If your store doesn't have the actual red pepper & artichoke tapenade or sun dried pesto here's a trick: put equal amounts of jarred roasted red peppers(drained), artichokes (drained) & sun dried tomatoes in oil (drained) in a food processor until a pesto consistency, adding back some oil if needed. Defeats the ease of the dump recipe idea but works if you really want to taste how delicious it is - and it is!
Start a large pot of water boiling, adding a pinch of salt and a smidge of oil (what's a smidge? - a 1/2 teaspoon give or take). While that is going, drain the olives and mushrooms in a colander and leave to drain good. While that is doing that, open containers and start dumping in a very large serving bowl: tapenade, both pestos, cheese and garlic. Add drained items. Stir well. Rinse the same colander. When pasta is al dente, drain very, very well and dump in bowl and stir very well. Enjoy!
