Hawaiian Pasta Salad

This is a wonderfully light, cold, tasty and filling dinner with very little work involved—most of it is chopping. I didn’t have bow-tie pasta and I didn’t want to go shopping, so I used some left-over rotini pasta.

Advisory: This recipe makes a helluva big bowlful, enough to feed at least 6 people.

Ingredients

• ROTINI or BOW-TIE PASTA, 8 ounces
• PINEAPPLE (CRUSHED), 1 14-ounce can, juice reserved
• RED PEPPER, 1, diced
• HAM, 2 cups, diced
• GREEN ONION, 1, chopped
• PINEAPPLE CHUNKS, 1 14-ounce can, for topping

Dressing

• MAYONNAISE, ½ cup
• SOUR CREAM, ¼ cup
• DIJON MUSTARD, 1 tablespoon
• PINEAPPLE JUICE, ⅓ cup
• CIDER VINEGAR, 1 teaspoon
• HONEY, 1 teaspoon
• GARLIC POWDER, ¼ teaspoon
• BLACK PEPPER to taste

Directions

1. Cook the pasta.
2. Chop the red peppers, ham and green onions.
3. Add the pineapple and mix.
4. Make the dressing.
5. Mix everything together and refrigerate to cool and meld the flavors.