Pesto Pasta Salad

Pesto Pasta Salad

1/2 fresh basil leaves (I really should have used more, but it already halved the leaves on my poor plant)
1/3 cup olive oil1 clove of fresh garlic (the last of my last head, alas!)
2 tomatoes, chopped
3/4 cup sweet corn
2 Tbs capers
1 small tin of anchovies, less the chef's due (about 15 anchovies)
1 Tbs frozen chopped parsley (use fresh instead if you have enough)
1 Tbs frozen chopped parsley (ditto)
3 tiny spring onions (because I was grilling their brothers and they were too small and I didn't want to waste them!)
1/3 cup sunflower seeds (I intended to use toasted pine nuts, but didn't have any in the cupboard)
3/4 cup to 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 cups pasta (rotini and large shell pasta)freshly ground pepper to taste

Start the pasta cooking in a large pot of boiling water. If the shapes vary greatly in size, you may want to put in the largest a few minutes before adding the others.
Put the basil in a mortar with a pinch of salt and the clove of garlic. Grind with the pestle until you have a paste. Add the olive oil to this paste and mix. Set aside and prepare the rest of the ingredients (chopping tomatoes and onions, grating cheese, etc.)
When the pasta is just barely done, drain it and toss it with the basil/garlic/olive oil dressing. Add the extra basil and parsley and chill for ten minutes or so in the fridge. Add the tomatoes, corn, capers, onions and anchovies and continue cooling. When the pasta has cooled at least to room temperature, add the cheese and sunflower seeds and toss. Taste for salt, pepper and Parmesan. Serve!
The mix of pesto, anchovies and sunflower seeds gave the pasta quite a bit of flavour. If you have any other fresh vegetables, I am sure they would also go very well in this salad. I think the only change I would make next time is to add more pesto, but then you would probably want to reduce the anchovy and sunflower seed content (and possibly replace the latter with toasted pine nuts, which have a less pronounced flavour). As it was, though, the salad more than fulfilled my goal of NOT BEING BLAND.

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The above has been taken from
http://www.toomanychefs.com/archives/001054.php