Spooky Pasta Salad for Halloween

For Halloween I went to a party where they smoked a turkey. That's right, turkey for halloween. I wanted to bring a side dish that would go with this but I had a few criteria I wanted to meet:
1. A room temp side dish.
2. Be able to make it ahead.
3. Make it halloween themed.

I knew I wanted to do a pasta salad and I ended up doing a spin on my Mediterranean Orzo Salad. I don't like making a dish the first time right before a party but I knew I could execute this other dish. It all came together for me when I realized I could do squid ink pasta and have a black pasta salad. I added in some orange bell pepper, mozzarella, and cherry tomatoes to add flavor as well as stay in the Halloween color palette. I feel like it was a hit but not as much as my super simple Snickerdoodle Cookies. (post coming shortly)

This whole dish can be made up to two days in advance. Just put into a large pan in the fridge and cover with plastic wrap. On the day of the party just remove from the fridge about an hour before and give a good stir before serving. Taste for salt and pepper seasoning. Pro tip for decorating: store some bell pepper, tomatoes and mozzarella on the side and put on top of the dish at the last minute to make the ingredients shine.

Ingredients:

Pasta Salad:
1 lb. Squid ink pasta - short noodle. (I used fusilli but penne or any other short pasta would work).
1 container cherry tomatoes, halved
1 orange bell pepper, diced
1 container pearl mozzarella, halved

Dressing:
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 tsp. dijon mustard
1 tsp. honey
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. Make dressing by combining all ingredients into a large jar. (I use a cleaned marinara jar). Shake until well combined.

2. Cook pasta to package directions. Drain and put into large bowl. Stir in 1/2 of the dressing to season pasta while it is hot and keep it from sticking together.

3. While pasta cooks, halve the tomatoes, dice the bell pepper, and halve the pearl mozzarella. Reserve 1/4 of each for final topping of the dish.

4. Once pasta is cooked and cooled, add in the tomatoes, bell pepper, and mozzarella. Add in some of the reserved dressing and taste for seasoning. Add more dressing slowly as you don't want the final dish to be over dressed or oily.

5. Put pasta salad into serving dish. Top with reserved tomatoes, bell pepper, and mozzarella.