Pepperoni Pizza Pasta Salad, kid approved easy recipe – pizza sauce dressing mozzarella basil tomato

Today we’re making a pepperoni pizza pasta salad back to school style. This one’s fun. You can get your kids, nieces, nephews, whoever is hanging around in the kitchen involved in making it. Start out by boiling your pasta. My son’s favorite is bow ties, but use whatever shape your family loves. For the pizza vinegarette, we have extra virgin olive oil and half a cup of pizza sauce or pasta sauce. A little red wine vinegar, crushed garlic, dried oregano, can’t forget the salt and pepper, and whisk. Now, here comes the fun part. Rinse and drain your pasta. You can do this in a dorm room, too, if you have a hot plate and cutting board. Those cute little mini mozzarella balls. Pop up a whole bunch of pepperoni. I like the unccured from TJ’s. You can stop there if you have a picky eater. It’s tomato season, so I like to add a few diced tomatoes, black olives, chopped spinach, a little microplane domestic parmesan because it’s half the price, and fresh chopped basil. And boom, it’s pizza night in salad form. Leftovers for lunch the next day. Happy, fun, kid approved and officially lunchbox ready.