How To Make Easy Pasta Salad

The ideal side dish to bring to a potluck or picnic is an easy pasta salad cooked with mozzarella, black olives, cherry tomatoes, and bell peppers in a creamy Italian dressing.

If you’re working on perfecting your favorite Grilled Salad recipes, be sure to check out these three easy side dishes that everyone loves: Steak Salad, Thai Beef Salad and Chicken Avocado Pasta Salad .

Although it just takes 10 minutes to put this dish together, it should be chilled for at least an hour before serving. This meal is best served cold, so the refrigerated time allows the flavors to meld.

This spaghetti salad dish is excellent for potlucks and consistently outperforms store-bought varieties. Purchasing a pre-made dressing is almost as simple! It will only take ten minutes to complete.

How to Make Easy Pasta Salad

This pasta salad is really simple to make! All that has to be done is to combine all the ingredients, let them cool in the refrigerator for a few hours, and then you’re ready to serve. Look it up!

Step One: If you don’t have pasta that has already been cooked, step one is to boil water with it until it is fully cooked. Then, drain the pasta. To avoid having mushy pasta, while pre-cooking your own pasta, be sure to only cook it in a big pot until it’s al dente. To prevent the pasta from continuing to cook, rinse it with cold water.
Step Two: The second step is to portion out and combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Cut your vegetables into roughly equal pieces so that the pasta salad will seem more consistent and the portions will all be bite-sized.
Step three: Cover the pasta and refrigerate it so that the pasta salad may totally cool. Before serving, garnish with fresh parsley for appearance.

The Essentials for a Simple Pasta Salad

This dish’s pasta salad contains a wide range of tastes that work beautifully together. All the ingredients are conveniently available at the neighborhood grocery shop.

Pasta:We’re using tricolored pasta because it gives the meal a ton of vibrant color. Regular colored spaghetti works just as well.
Cheese: Mozzarella is a fantastic cheese with a delectable and mild flavor. For the finest flavor, buy as fresh as you can! If you can locate the miniature mozzarella balls, they are convenient and prepared.
Olives:Black olives that have been pitted are a necessary component in this recipe.
Tomatoes:To add to your spaghetti meal, cherry tomatoes are simple to chop in half.
Dressing:Always manufacture your own clothes if you can. Homemade Italian dressing has unmatched taste and freshness. However, in a pinch, you may use the prebottled variety.
Bell peppers: To provide a diversity of color to this meal, we used red and green bell peppers, often known as capsicum.

How to Make Creamy Italian Dressing

This nutritious dressing is really simple to make and free of artificial preservatives. Simply combine all the ingredients, then chill. For this meal, a pro tip suggests reusing an empty, thoroughly cleaned glass dressing jar. The best recycling method is this.

Ingredients

½ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup white wine vinegar
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¾ cup shredded parmesan cheese
¼ teaspoon garlic salt
¼ teaspoon dried basil
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon marjoram

Instructions: In a small bowl, mix together the olive oil, white wine vinegar, mayonnaise, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, garlic salt, dried basil, dried oregano, and dried marjoram. For up to seven days, this dressing can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Variations for Easy Pasta Salad

This dish has so many different variations! The number of modifications—additions, subtractions, styles, spices—is (nearly) unlimited. Look it up!

Pasta: You may use any sort of pasta you have in your pantry, even penne, to prepare this dish. The tri-colored pasta used in this recipe gives the dish’s appearance some great color.
Vinegar: To add some taste variety, add a splash of red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar. In the dressing, apple cider vinegar is an additional option.
Spicy: Add some red pepper flakes, sliced red onions, or hot peppers to this simple pasta salad to make it spicier.
Dressing: While store-bought Italian dressing is an option, the aforementioned homemade version has far more taste.
Additions:To this pasta salad dish, you may add extra antipasto components like sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, cucumber, Roma tomatoes, or aged provolone. Grate some parmesan cheese and sprinkle it over top or serve more on the side.
Flavor Booster:Add fresh flavor to this Italian pasta salad by using herbs like basil, dill, coarsely powdered black pepper, or minced chives. The Italian dressing already has enough flavour.
Greek Style:Greek-style pasta salad may be made by adding feta cheese. If your olives are Greek Kalamata olives, you get extra points!

Ingredients

1 pound tricolor rotini pasta , precooked
8 ounces mozzarella cheese , diced
2 cups cherry tomatoes , halved
8 ounces medium pitted black olives
1 green bell pepper , chopped
1 red bell pepper , chopped
2 cups Italian Dressing (see recipe above or use bottled)

Instructions

In a large bowl add the pasta, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, black olives, green bell pepper and dressing and toss gently.
Refrigerate at least an hour before serving.

Nutrition