Cool Summer Pasta

This is almost more of a vegetable salad than a pasta salad. We made this pasta salad this past weekend at a friend’s cabin, using mostly leftovers from other meals. It was great! I used the corn, sweet pepper, basil and tomatoes, but you could also add some cubed and cooked eggplant and green beans. Cubed mozzarella, feta or a soft goat’s cheese would be great in this pasta as well.

12 oz. cooked pasta. We used leftover fusilli, and no need to measure — a rough few cups is fine. Any kind of pasta would work, but this would probably be best with fusilli, campanelle or orecchiette.
kernels from 3-4 ears of cooked corn
a handful of basil, roughly torn
1 sweet pepper, finely diced
a basket cherry tomatoes, cut in half
zest of one lime
zest of one lemon
a squeeze of lemon juice
a squeeze of lime juice
salt & pepper, to taste
1/2 lb. cooked bacon, finely diced. We cooked up some cottage bacon and added it into the pasta along with the fat from the pan. If you don’t use the bacon, substitute some olive oil or other fat.

Combine all the ingredients in a big bowl and adjust the salt and pepper as needed. Add some red chile flakes to give it a bit of kick.