Mondays Meals-Grilled Veggie Pasta Salad

Time for Monday's Meals again over on "A Love Worth Waiting For". This recipe is another Paula Deen recipe. I know, I know, I really need to try some other things, but I just love Paula Deen and I can always count on it turning out good. On Friday, I made Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad. I served it with grilled Italian chicken (chicken marinated in italian dressing overnight) and it was so delicious. Greg and I both loved it. It's one of my favorite recipes that I've tried in a while. After we got done, we cut up the leftover chicken and put it with the leftover salad and it was so good. So, this can be a delicious side dish or add some chicken and make it a main course. It's definitely something we'll be having again. We already had some tasty Vidalia Onion dressing that we got from Sam's Club, so we used that instead of the Paula Deen brand.

*And asparagus is in season now, so we got some at Sam's Club this weekend and I'll be trying a few new recipes with that this week that I'll post on here.

Paula Deen's Grilled Vegetable Pasta Salad

Ingredients
1 lb penne pasta, cooked until firm to the bite **I used wheat pasta**
2 cup grape tomatoes, halved
1 large red onion, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch thick wedges
1 lb asparagus spears, trimmed
1 sweet green bell pepper, cored, seeded and cut in half
2 sweet red peppers, cored, seeded and cut in half
1 1/4 cup Paula Deen Vidalia Onion Peppercorn Dressing
10 leaves of fresh basil, stacked, rolled and cut into very thin strips
salt to taste

Directions
In a square baking dish toss vegetables with 1 Cup of the Paula Deen Vidalia Onion Peppercorn Dressing and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
While vegetables are marinating, cook pasta until firm to the bite and heat outdoor grill until medium hot.
Working in batches, grill the peppers, asparagus and onion about 3 minutes per side until grill marks appear but vegetables are still firm.
Remove the vegetables from the grill and cool slightly until you can cut the peppers, asparagus and onions into large pieces.
In large bowl or on serving platter, toss together the cooked pasta, grilled vegetable pieces, and tomatoes and remaining 1/4 cup dressing. Toss in basil. Serve room temperature.