Pasta Salad with Walnut Pesto

This was another dish I made for my school's end-of-year party, which happened in my backyard. I made pesto pasta salad, chicken piccata, bean salad, and roasted root vegetables with basalmic and goat cheese dressing.
If you are confused about the lack of pork or beef in this menu, it's because my coworkers are all a bunch of health freaks. Half of them don't eat red meat, a couple are rule-following Jews (unlike the bacon-loving Frank interpretation of Judiasm), and some are even vegetarians or nondrinkers! These people love fresh air, exercise, local vegetables, and waking up without regrets. I can only imagine they all secretly have really sinister vices--crack? Parkour? Abuse of baby goats? All I know is anyone who teaches HS has to cut loose somehow, and if it's not scotch and steak, what is it?

Anyway, pesto!
I like making mine with toasted walnuts in place of traditional pine nuts--I think they have a more distinctively nutty flavor.

Pesto Recipe

1.5 cups toasted walnuts
1 cup parmesan cheese
4 cups (packed) basil leaves
1.5 cups olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili flakes
4 cloves of garlic 
juice of 1 lemon

What to do:
Blend!

Ingredients

So to make this pasta salad, I combined the pesto with campanelle, fresh cherry tomatoes, and roasted red peppers.

It was delicious, and so was everything else.

Party food!

These people work too hard.

It was a delightful night and now: It's summer! I don't have to take the highway out to the boonies until August 12th! Looking forward to watching a lot of tv, cooking a lot of great food, getting married to world's sexiest man, and reading Game of Thrones on a beach in Belize.
YAY!