Garth has to claim this recipe because he modified my basic pasta salad to suit his tastes and changed it completely! He likes to eat it warm because he loves the way the cheese melts into the other ingredients, so he doesn’t wait for the pasta to cool down at all. He also says the secret to making the tomatoes taste so good is salting them separately. Who knew he was Gartha Stewart?

Ingredients

　　12 ounces rotini pasta

　　12 ounces spinach tortellini

　　2 dozen grape tomatoes, sliced in halves

　　1 teaspoon salt

　　1/2 teaspoon pepper

　　10 ounces Cheddar cheese, shredded

　　3 tablespoons olive oil

　　In a large saucepan, cook the rotini and tortellini for 10 minutes, or until they are at a desired tenderness. Drain the noodles. In a small bowl, toss the sliced tomatoes with the salt and pepper. While the pasta is still warm, toss it with the tomatoes, cheese, and olive oil. Serve warm.

　　Reprinted with permission from Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen: Recipes from My Family to Yours by Trisha Yearwood with Gwen Yearwood and Beth Yearwood Bernard. Copyright © 2008 by Trisha Yearwood. Published by Crown Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.Trisha Yearwood is a three-time Grammy-award winning country music star and the author of the bestselling cookbook Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen. She is married to megastar Garth Brooks.