Chipotle Pasta Salad with gouda

From The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

• 12 ounces pasta (about 4 cups penne)
• 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup Whole Milk
• 4 Tablespoons White Vinegar
• 1-1/2 teaspoon Adobo Sauce From Chipotle Peppers (or One Minced Chipotle Pepper)
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
•  Ground Black Pepper To Taste
• 10 ounces, weight Grape Tomatoes, Halved Lengthwise
• 1/2 pound Smoked Gouda Cheese, Cut Into Small Cubes
• 24 whole Basil Leaves (chiffonade)

Preparation Instructions

Cook pasta until done. Drain and rinse in cold water until no longer hot. Set aside.

Mix mayonnaise, milk, vinegar, salt, pepper, and adobo in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, stir together pasta, dressing, halved tomatoes, and cubed Gouda. Taste for seasonings, adding more salt and pepper if needed, and even an extra teaspoons or two of vinegar if necessary. Stir in basil at the end. Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.

Notes from Jill's Kitchen: The gouda is fantastic. I don't even like cheese, but the cheese in this salad is....gah. Problem, though. I can only ever find blocks or chunks of gouda at the store that are WAY too big for this recipe. New goal in life: find another awesome recipe that uses gouda so I can stop throwing away half a block of moldy gouda. That's a good life goal, I think. I'll start on that after I accomplish my current life goal: get baby to sleep longer than 1.5 hours at a time. Also a good life goal.

Update 6/15: We had some random leftover ears of grilled corn laying around in the fridge tonight and Sam said, "well, why don't you put them in?" Like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I am glad it was obvious to him, at least, because we cut the corn off the cob and stirred it into this pasta salad and oh man it was good. Grilling corn just to cut it off and stir it in a salad definitely adds to the work load of this relatively easy and quick to make pasta salad, but I just might declare the extra effort more than worth it.