Cooking for Zo

Taste Level: GR
Cost: $20 and under
Serves: 8-10
Prep Time: 1 hour-1 hour 15 min.
Cook Time: 20-25 min.
Difficulty: 1

To celebrate my 100Th post I wanted to make something fancier than usual. We just happen to be going to a birthday BBQ at Zo's Aunts so it gave me a chance to be a little inventive. See when you just bringing a dish and are not cooking an entire meal you can put that extra effort into your food that you usually do not have time for. I decided that I would make a center piece dish for the table. At first I was going to make a potato salad I'd made for Zo's graduation BBQ that Aunt Pat really liked but then I came across this. I was digging around in my personal cookbook, looking through scraps of paper with scraps of ideas when took notice of this recipe. I had outlined it last summer when I thought it would be fun to make a hybrid pasta/potato salad. Of course you could just say it is one or the other but then you would not be able to come up with a fun name like Pastato, now would you?

Ingredients:
Salad
4-5 red potatoes (about 3 1/2 cups when sliced and then halved)
4 hard boiled eggs (chopped)
2 cups Farfalle pasta (Bowtie pasta)
8 slices turkey bacon (crisped and diced)
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil (diced and compacted into 1/2 cup)
1 medium red onion (diced, 1 cup)
1/2 cup celery (diced)
1/2 cup green olives (chopped)
1/2 cup Kalamata olives (chopped)
2-3 cloves garlic (minced, about 1 1/4 tsp)
2 ground bay leaves
1 1/2 tsp fresh oregano (diced)
1 1/2 tsp fresh basil (diced)
1 tbsp 1 tsp fresh Italian parsley (diced)
3/4 tsp fresh sage (diced)
3/4 tsp fresh rosemary (diced)
1 1/2 tsp fresh chives (diced)
Fresh crack pepper (to taste)
kosher salt (to taste)
(red leaf lettuce and edible flowers for garnish are optional)

Sauce
1 tbsp pesto
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp grey Poupon (or Dijon mustard)
1/3 cup lime juice
1/2 tsp essence

Bring enough water to submerge potatoes to boil in a large sauce pan. Boil potatoes for 15-20 or until easily punctured with fork. once cooked remove from heat, drain and let cool. (While potatoes are cooking I boiled the eggs, crisped the bacon and cooked the Farfalle till al dente, following the instructions on the package.)

Mix together all sauce ingredients in small bowl.

In a large bowl fold together by hand all salad ingredients except pasta and potatoes. Fold in sauce till evenly mixed. Potatoes and pasta should be cool enough to handle by now after being cooked. Slice potatoes and then cut slices in half. Fold potatoes and pasta into salad. Cover mixture with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour before serving. Serve chilled.

Garnish instructions:
In a medium salad bowl lay leafs of red lettuce around inside lining of bowl. Pour Pastato Salad into bowl gently so as not to move any of the lettuce. Spread edible flowers around the top in a desirable way and either serve right away or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 1 hour before serving.