by Lindsay Weiss posted in Life & Home

I made this salad to deliver to a friend's house for dinner the other night. It was a blazing hot 95 degrees and nobody in their right mind wanted to turn on an oven that day. I realllllllly wanted to roast the tomatoes in this dish because I think it tastes so much better, but I eyed my oven like it was a mortal enemy and knew I couldn't do it.
So instead I turned on my little-bitty toaster oven and roasted these puppies up. And I'm so glad I did. Roasting the little tomatoes with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper makes this pasta salad way better than your typical potluck fare. And, because I'm not a mayonnaise fan, I opted to keep this version light and healthy with an Italian vinaigrette dressing. Perfect for a 95-degree day. The secret weapon in this dish is tossing all the ingredients in a little bit of the bacon rendering (i.e., fat). Not the whole pan of fat. But after you cook the bacon and drain most of the fat, you toss this in about a tablespoon of the drippings and get all the good little bits off the bottom of the pan. Yessir, you will thank me for that tip.
This is the perfect side dish, but honestly, I threw in some grilled chicken and made it a meal. I delivered some fresh strawberries and cantaloupe with it and a quart of our famous No-Churn Tuxedo ice cream since this meal happened to be for a single dad. I got the sweetest pic back of a bunch of empty containers and happy kids, so I think it was a hi...