Meatless Monday: Helen Jane's Bocce Salad

I have been an avid reader of Helen Jane's blog since it's inception. She is one of those bloggers I would love to meet. She also has a child the same age as my son so it makes her blog more interesting.

Helen Jane posts amazing recipes and her Bocce Pasta Salad is a hit in our house.

Now, the pasta salad can be adapted to what ever you have in the frig or your CSA but most of the time I follow the recipe.

Helen Jane's Bocce Pasta Salad
by Helen Jane

Ingredients
1 pound dried orzo pasta
3 tomatoes
15 sundried tomatoes
1 small red onion
40 basil leaves (one bunch basil)
7 ounces feta cheese (solid, not crumbled)
1 large lemon
1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper

Directions
Cook the orzo for 10 minutes in boiling, salted water.
While orzo is cooking, chop the red onion as fine as you can. Chop the tomatoes into slightly larger pieces and chop the feta cheese into similarly sized chunks.

When the pasta has finished cooking, drain in a colander and rinse with cold water.
Dump the pasta in a big plop from your colander into a large mixing bowl.

Add the tomatoes, onions and feta.
(I chop the basil with scissors into ribbons onto the top of the bowl to minimize basil-bruising.)

Don’t stir yet, although you will be tempted.

Sprinkle salt and pepper over the bowl. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice over the bowl. Drizzle the olive oil over the bowl as well.
Now, now you may toss, gently.