Garden Pasta Salad with Garlic, Basil, and Red Wine

Okay, fine- so this doesn't have red wine in it, even though it sounds classy. It does have red wine vinegar, however, which counts!

This chilled pasta salad is summery and yummy. Yummery. Summy. (Enough!)

The End.

But, wait, there's more!
I usually make lots of the vinaigrette because the vinaigrette soaks into the pasta if you don't eat it all at one meal, which makes the leftovers more bland than I like. Enter extra vinaigrette! (Also, I need to correct my confidant statement of "I usually, etc., etc., etc." That's a farce, because I created this just last week and have only eaten it the once!)

Salad
-Petite pasta of your choice; something small and sassy is nice, about 16 oz., cooked, drained, and chilled (just run cold water over it)

To the chilled pasta, add
-3 cups julienned raw zucchini (matchsticks)
- 1 cup diced red pepper
- diced tomatoes, as many as you desire
- 1/2 cup chopped cucumbers, or more, if desired (If you grew them yourself, please do leave the skin on. No poison and more vitamins! PSA over and out.)
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped green onion tops
- 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, cut chiffonade
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan


Vinaigrette

In a small bowl, whisk together the following:
- 1/4 cup fresh, flat-leaf Italian parsley, chopped
- 6 cloves fresh garlic, finely minced
-1 and 1/2 tsp. salt
-1/2 tsp. black pepper
-1/4 + 1/8 cup red wine vinegar
-1/8 cup + 1 tbsp. lemon juice
-1/2 cup canola oil
- a bit of sugar

(Sorry for the weird measurements. I was making this off the cuff and will adjust to normalcy the next time I make it.)

Lastly, if you're lucky enough to have feta in your fridge, go for it!!!!!!!

Please don't question the known fact that feta cheese deserves seven exclamation points.

Or more.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!