Christine's Pasta Fruit Salad

This fruit salad is awesome- I adapted it from an old recipe given to me years ago. People often won't try it at first because they think it's made with tapioca, but it's actually made with acini de pepe, a tiny little pasta ball. Once they try it, it disappears... My sister-in-law claims to be able to lose a couple of pounds by eating this for lunch for a week!

• Ready In: 48 hrs 30 mins
• Serves: 16

Ingredients

• 2 (16 ounce) cans crushed pineapple or 2 (16 ounce) cans pineapple tidbits
• 2 (12 ounce) cans mandarin oranges
• 2 (12 ounce) jars maraschino cherries
• 1  lb acini di pepe pasta
• 1  cup sugar
• 1  egg
• 4  tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 (24 ounce) container  whipped topping

Directions

1. Cook and drain the pasta according to package directions, rinse with cold water and drain well; set aside.
2. Drain the pineapple and oranges- save the juice! Also drain the cherries and save the juice, but separate from other juices.
3. Mix all the drained fruit in with your pasta. You may want to cut up your cherries (sometimes I do, sometimes I'm too lazy).
4. Take the orange and pineapple juice and put into a large saucepan. Use a hand blender to add the egg and mix well; then add your sugar. Bring to a boil, then add the cornstarch mixed with a bit of cold water. Boil all together for 1 minute. This must cool completely- then add 1/2 of the cherry juice and discard the rest.
5. Now add your cooled juice mixture to your pasta and fruit. Mix together well, then add cool whip.
6. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.
7. If you cannot find acini de pepe pasta in your store, you can substitute with those little bitty stars pasta, or the pasta that looks like rice/melon seeds, but when I do the packages of those end up being more than 1 lb- it works out fine though, don't try to even it out to 1 lb, just use it as is.