Greek pasta salad [porter]

Greek pasta salad

To give full credit, I subscribe to a twice-weekly recipe newsletter from PureWow.  Usually I don't have good applications for these recipes because they are designed to impress friends at a dinner party (read: strawberry soup), and often times they call for expensive or rare ingredients.  Just when I thought I might unsubscribe, this Greek pasta salad popped into my inbox.  With relatively attainable ingredients and a prep time that fits into my schedule, I gave it a shot.  The grocery bill came out a bit steep (about $25 for the ingredients I didn't already have), but it fed 2 mouths last night and probably will make 3-4 more individual meals this week (fantastic leftovers for lunch!).  That math comes out to about $4 per meal per person...not too shabby.

Adopted from Susie Middleton's The Fresh & Green Table
Ingredients:
1/4 c olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
zest from one lemon
1 tsp honey
1 tsp dried dill (optional)
1 tsp salt, divided
pepper to taste
1 sm red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 can or jar of artichoke hearts, drained and quartered (can use whole can...I wanted left over artichoke)
1 pint small grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 c pitted kalamata olives, quartered lengthwise
4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
2 tbsp fresh oregano, chopped and divided (dried will probably work, but the fresh was delicious)
12oz fusilli pasta (any curly pasta works)
5 handfuls of spinach
1/3 c chopped walnuts
12 small pepperoncini, drained and thickly sliced

The how to:
Combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, lemon zest, honey, dill, 1/2 tsp salt, and pepper in a large bowl.

Add red onion, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, olives, feta, and 1 tbsp oregano. Stir to coat ingredients and let sit for about 20 min.  Prepare pasta according to package instructions.  Right before pasta is done, add spinach, walnuts, and pepperoncini to the top of the large bowl (do not mix in).  Drain the pasta and pour on top of the ingredients in the large bowl.  Add remaining salt and oregano.  The heat from the pasta will slightly wilt/cook the spinach.  After 2 min, stir spinach and pasta to evenly incorporate and coat in dressing.

Side notes:
The original recipe called for some tapenade in the dressing, but since Fiance doesn't like olives that much, I left it out (I figured he could pick out the whole olives if inclined).  The first 8 ingredients make a great salad dressing on their own.    For the remaining ingredients, you can increase, decrease, or omit based on your tastes.  For example, I only used half of the artichoke hearts recommended in the original recipe because I hope Fiance and I will make chicken and artichoke pizza with the remainder.  I didn't think of it until I left the grocery, but cucumber might be a nice addition to this salad.  I also used more pasta than the original recipe because I wanted to make sure this made multiple meals.  Zesting the lemon and not using the juice seemed like a waste, so we made gin and tonics with the juice from half a lemon in each.  The gin competed a bit with the balsamic in the recipe so I'd make this a before dinner or an after dinner drink.  Lastly, we added sliced peppered salami to serve because the Fiance doesn't like to call it a main dish if there isn't protein.

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