Pasta Salad (w/ Feta)

I needed something to take to a potluck - some kind of side dish.  I'd seen a recipe on GMA for a pasta salad, and the only ingredient I remembered was feta -besides the pasta, of course.  I found that recipe, but I didn't have all the ingredients or it wasn't what I was wanting, so I went looking for a pasta salad with feta.  I found a whole list of them, but I decided to go with this one, kinda.

Pasta Salad w/ Feta and Olives

Ingredients:

• 16 ozs bow tie pasta (farfalle)
• 2 cups broccoli florets 
• 15 ozs kidney beans (drained)
• 4 ozs black olives (sliced, drained)
• 1 bell pepper (seeded and diced) 
• 1/2 can diced tomatoes
• 4 ozs feta cheese (crumbled)
• 1 cup Italian salad dressing

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook until tender, about 8 minutes. Add broccoli florets to the boiling water during the last 2 minutes. Drain, and run under cold water to cool.
2. In a large serving bowl, stir together the kidney beans, black olives, bell pepper, tomatoes, feta cheese and Italian dressing. Stir in the pasta and broccoli. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Chill and serve.

This would be great with fresh broccoli and tomatoes, but I didn't have any so I used frozen broccoli and canned tomatoes.  I used an orange pepper, because that's what I had, and I think it added a nice color to the salad.  I also forgot to run cold water over the pasta and broccoli, so I mixed it in hot, but I'm thinking that might help blend the flavors better - or at least that's what I'm telling myself.  I'll probably use the cold water next time, if I remember.

The salad is chilling now, so I haven't tasted it - except to sample a couple pieces of pasta, and those were great.  It smells amazing, and it will make a nice cool side-dish this weekend.