This recipe is from my friends Misa and Michiko. When I moved to Greensboro about four years ago, Michiko basically adopted me.  To this day I refer to her as my Greensboro mother. Naturally I’ve also become close with her daughter Misa and Michiko’s other adopted daughter Annie. This past January, the three of us put our heads together to try to pull off the impossible – get Michiko back for all her crazy surprises and throw her a big birthday party. To my surprise, we did pull it off! One of the dishes we enjoyed that day was Annie’s “Jar Aisle” Pasta that Misa prepared. It was a hit and after the chaos slowed down I asked for the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 large package fresh cheese tortellini (or 2, or more depending on your crowd)
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
(you can also use Newman’s Own balsamic salad dressing instead of mixing own)
some chopped red onion or scallions, or both
some chopped green, red, yellow, or orange peppers–whatever you have
halved cherry tomatoes
a few cloves chopped garlic
And, from the “jar aisle”, any or all of the following, chopped a bit:
pitted kalamata olives
roasted red pepper
artichoke hearts
sun-dried tomatoes

Assembly: Cook pasta according to directions. Drain. In a large bowl, whisk a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper,  garlic and onion and/or scallions. Add pasta to dressing and stir. Add everything else you decided to add!