Every home cook needs a delicious Italian pasta salad recipe in their back pocket for a quick summer side dish or as an easy dinner on nights when it’s too hot to cook. This is my absolute favorite pasta salad recipe to make for summer gatherings since it’s loaded with colorful veggies, mozzarella cheese, Italian seasoning, and loads of zesty Italian dressing – all of which everyone always loves!!
What’s So Great About Italian Pasta Salad?
Want to know why this is THE BEST pasta salad out there? Here are just a few of the reasons we love it so much:
- Absolutely bursting with flavor from an incredible Italian dressing and a heavy sprinkle of extra Italian seasoning.
- Easy to find ingredients that you may already have in your fridge and pantry.
- Vegetarian Italian pasta salad that is a completely adaptable recipe. It works great with lots of add-ins like marinated mushrooms, chunks of provolone, black olives, red onions, and cured Italian meat like salami or pepperoni if you don’t need it to be vegetarian.
- Total crowd-pleaser recipe that everyone loves for its familiar and punchy Italian ingredients.
If there’s one dish that never fails to remind me of summer BBQs and summer cookouts, it’s a good Italian pasta salad. This version is fresh, zippy, and loaded with crunchy fresh veggies, soft fresh mozzarella cheese, and plenty of tangy dressing to keep each bite interesting.
My version is vegetarian, making it perfect for summer gatherings, but if you’ve got a few cured meats hanging around in the fridge – salami, soppressata, capacoli, even a handful of pepperoni – go ahead and toss them in! Most pasta salad recipes are so adaptable like that!
PRO TIP!
This one of those recipes that tastes even better after sitting in the fridge for a few hours, so you can make it in the morning and forget about it until dinner time.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the pantry staple ingredients you’ll need, the 2 simple steps of the recipe, and share a few tips I’ve learned along the way of making excellent Italian food for over 20 years.
Now, let’s invite a bunch of people over, fire up the grill, and toss this pasta salad together for dinner!
Italian Pasta Salad Ingredients
Here’s the basic Ingredients list for this Italian pasta salad recipe. I’m willing to bet you already have most, if not all, of these ingredients in your kitchen already!
Be sure to keep scrolling down to the recipe card below for the full printable Ingredients list for this great recipe!
- Dry rotini pasta, penne pasta, or bowtie pasta – Cooked according to package instructions and then rinsed under cold water
- Fresh mozzarella cheese
- Cherry tomatoes
- Cucumbers
- Roasted red peppers
- Marinated artichoke hearts
- Italian seasoning mix
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Italian dressing – I use my homemade Italian dressing; bottled salad dressing will work too.
PRO TIP!
Make sure you don’t overcook the pasta! You’ll want to cook it until it’s JUST al dente. Al dente pasta holds up better in pasta salad than fully cooked pasta, which gets mushy and falls apart on your fork.
How to Make Italian Pasta Salad
Here are the incredibly simple (2 steps!!) instructions for how to make pasta salad Be sure to keep scrolling down to the recipe card below for the full set of Instructions!
STEP 1: Mix all of the ingredients except the Italian dressing together in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle in some of the dressing and mix the salad up well.
STEP 2: Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Drizzle with extra dressing and mix well before serving.
Italian Pasta Salad Add-ins
I first made this pasta salad with only ingredients I had in my pantry and fridge. I made it on a whim to bring to my friend’s house for a last minute dinner invite. I LOVED how it was such an easy pasta salad recipe to toss together in a large bowl and serve at room temperature at her house.
You can see in the recipe card below what ingredients I made this version with. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t swap out or add in lots of other ingredients to make this the best pasta salad ever!
Here are some of my suggestions for great Italian pasta salad add-ins:
- Red onion
- Provolone cheese
- Asiago cheese
- Parmesan cheese
- Marinated mushrooms
- Cured meats like salami, pepperoni, capocoli, or soppressata
- Black olives or kalamata olives
- Pepperoncini peppers
- Sun-dried tomatoes
- Fresh herbs like fresh basil and fresh parsley
What to Serve with Homemade Pasta Salad
Italian pasta salad is a classic summer side dish that goes great with so many meals!
Here are some of my favorite dishes to serve with one of my best pasta salad recipes:
- BBQ chicken thighs
- Cheesy sausage burgers with sun-dried tomato pesto
- Herb grilled chicken
- Steamed lobster and grilled corn
FAQs
- How far in advance can you make Italian pasta salad? This salad keeps well in the fridge for about 2 days before the pasta starts to get a little mushy.
- Can I make pasta salad with bottled Italian dressing? You definitely can! While my Italian dressing recipe only takes a couple of minutes to make, go ahead and use a bottle of dressing if you have it in the fridge already.
- What kind of pasta is in the photos here? I absolutely adore Trader Joe’s Fusilli Corti Bucati pasta and use it in so many recipes! If you can’t find this type of pasta, any type of rotini, penne, or bowtie pasta will work perfectly in this recipe.
- Should the pasta salad be served cold or room temperature? It can be served either way. However, if you allow the pasta salad to warm to room temperature before serving it, you’ll allow the flavors to really pop!
- Why do you rinse the pasta after it’s finished cooking? Rinsing pasta under cold water after it cooks stops the pasta from overcooking when it is draining.
Italian Pasta Salad
Italian Pasta Salad is an incredible pasta salad for bbqs and summer parties. It's an easy pasta salad recipe to make when you need a quick and delicious meal to feed a crowd or to make as a simple summer side dish for weeknight dinners.
Ingredients
- 8 oz Trader Joe’s Fusilli Corti Bucati pasta (or a different twisty pasta shape), cooked al dente, according to package instructions and then rinsed with cold water
- 16 oz fresh mozzarella, ½-inch cubed
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup chopped cucumbers
- 1 cup chopped roasted red peppers
- 6.5 oz jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped
- ½ tsp Italian seasoning
- ½ tsp Kosher salt, plus more to taste
- A few cranks of freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup Italian dressing
Instructions
- Mix all of the ingredients through the black pepper together in a large bowl. Drizzle ½ cup of the dressing over the pasta salad and stir the salad up to coat everything with the dressing. Season with more salt to taste. Cover and refrigerate for 2 to 8 hours before serving.
- Before serving, drizzle the pasta salad with some of the extra dressing if it’s too dry and/or needs a little boost of flavor. Use any leftover dressing for salads or chicken marinade.
Notes
Feel free to add grilled chicken or steak to this pasta salad to boost the protein and make it a full meal instead of a side dish.
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