By Alisa Fleming - In a rather unexpected flavor, I may have found my holy grail of salad dressings.  Organicville’s Sun-Dried Tomato vinaigrette was rich with flavor, full bodied, and obsessively natural in flavor.  It melded beautifully with my Italian inspired green salad of spinach, romaine, chopped olives, roasted red peppers and chickpeas.  The sharp tang of vinegar made this one a standout atop my greens, yet the overall flavor was well-tempered by the calm tomato flavor for a truly light “vinegar-ette.”  My only, very slight, complaint was a couple of stray pockets of saltiness, though some may like the extra punch and a thorough shake-up could alleviate any unevenness.

As I searched for any remaining drops of dressing on my salad plate, I noticed that this warm and comforting vinaigrette seemed to be begging for a pasta salad.  Without hesitation, I got to work.  Here is my recipe recommendation thus far:

• 12 ounces (341g) pasta (I used quinoa pasta for fun!)
• ½ cup diced red pepper
• ¼ cup chopped olives
• About 10 slices of salami, thinly sliced
• ½ cup Organicvile Sun-Dried Tomato & Garlic Vinaigrette
• Two shakes of sea salt
• A couple grinds of pepper

As I blended the mixture, just before refrigerating, the frangrant smell of pizza struck my nose.  I could hardly wait overnight!  But the ingredients needed some time to get to know each other better.

I actually used jarred roasted red peppers in my first pasta salad batch, which was a big mistake.  The bitterness of those peppers really clashed with the salad, so I recommend sticking with fresh.  Aside from this, the salad dressing was still a go, but I almost preferred it in its freshest state.  While most pasta salads are best when allowed to “marry” overnight, this may be a good instant pasta salad pick. While my bottle quickly ran dry before I could test this theory, the Sun-Dried Tomato vinaigrette is one that I will repurchase!

• I am not sure how they do it, but even w/ a natural composition, these dressings exhibited virstually no separation when stored.  
• This dressing (as with all Organicville dressings) is vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, all natural, and USDA Organic.
• My only complaint on thei dressing is the use of soybean oil.  While it is organic, and they also use organic extra-virgin olive oil too, I would love to see an all olive oil base. 
• Ingredient and nutritional information is available on the Organicville Foods website.

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