Grilled Green Pasta Salad

Brookland’s finest pit master fired up the smoker this weekend for a BBQ and I certainly couldn’t show up empty handed. What to make…what to make? I really am a potato salad girl at heart, but I feel like it's just too soon for all that. It’s spring – I need a spring-ish pasta salad. Nothing is more spring to me than grilled asparagus so I got to work making a pasta salad with grilled veggies that would be worthy of a seat at the BBQ master’s table.
Grilled Green Pasta Salad
Ingredients:
1 lb. short pasta (I used ziti)
1 white onion
1 bunch asparagus
4-5 stalks green garlic (we get tons of it in our CSA, but scallions would work too)
1 cup frozen peas
handful of chives
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 Tablespoons sherry vinegar (or any white vinegar)
Cooking spray


1. Make pasta according to the directions on your box. I drain my pasta (Reserve some pasta water for the dressing), return it to the pot I cooked it in, and toss it with oil while I make the rest of the ingredients.

2. Slice the onion into thick disks (the way you would chop it to top a hamburger, but thicker) and chop the asparagus into one inch pieces.

3. Heat up a grill pan on high (I bet you could use a George Forman for this – my mom uses it for everything) and spray it with cooking spray.

4. Place the onions on the grill pan and let them cook for 3 minutes and then flip and cook for another 3 minutes.
5. Remove the onions, re-spray the grill and throw the asparagus on. They will take about 8-10 minutes to get nicely charred and cooked through. Shake around the pan every few minutes so that they cook evenly.

6. Roughly chop the onions into small, bite size pieces.

7. Defrost a cup of frozen peas in the microwave.

8. Make a light dressing by combining Dijon mustard with vinegar and olive oil. Add some pasta water to thin it out and also add a dash of salt and pepper.
9. Chop up the chives and toss everything together in a bowl and test it out to see if you need more salt and pepper.It can go in the fridge until you are ready to serve.