Grilled Pasta Salad

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 35 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 2 cups pasta, small shells (or your personal favorite)
• 3 -4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 sweet onion, wedged
• 1 skewer, large
• 1/2 sweet pepper, orange, quartered
• 1/2 sweet pepper, yellow, quartered
• 1 bunch asparagus (trim the woody ends)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, coarse, sea
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon roasted garlic, paste
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1 cup chicken breast, skinless, cooked (chopped or shredded)
• 4 slices bacon, fried (crisp and crumbled)
• 15 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 12 green olives, with pimento, cut in half
• 1/3 cup feta, greek (crumbled or diced)
• 3 tablespoons basil, fresh, chopped
• 4 basil sprigs, small, fresh, for garnish

Recipe

• 1 heat barbeque to medium high.
• 2 cook the pasta according to directions on package, drain and toss with a drizzle of olive oil to prevent it from sticking, set aside until needed.
• 3 slice the onion into thick wedges, thread onto skewer, brush with 1 tsp oilive oil, set aside until needed.
• 4 place the yellow and orange peppers and asparagus in a bowl, add 2 tsp of olive oil and toss to coat. season the vegetables with 1/4 tsp of salt and pepper.
• 5 grill the peppers and onion skewer, until tender and charred (10 minutes) and grill the asparagus until lightly charred and tender-crisp (5 minutes).
• 6 remove vegetables from grill allow to cool, then finely chop the onion and peppers .
• 7 chop the asparagus into 1 inch pieces and set aside until needed.
• 8 in a large bowl whisk the remaining olive oil , salt and pepper, as well as the vinegar, garlic paste and mustard.
• 9 once the dressing is prepared add to the dressing the onion, peppers, asparagus, chicken , bacon, tomatoes, olives, cheese and chopped basil.
• 10 make sure to mix well coating all ingredients, if necessary drizzle with a little extra olive oil.
• 11 taste, reseason if necessary and garnish with the basil sprig.
• 12 enjoy!