This Easy Italian Pasta Salad is the perfect accompaniment to your barbecue. The combination of salami, cheese, olives, and veggies makes for the perfect blend to pair with the Italian dressing.
Well, I for one cannot believe that Memorial Weekend is upon us. The unofficial start to summer, Memorial Day, requires summertime food. This easy Italian pasta salad is the perfect side dish for your Memorial Day feast.
This recipe makes a lot, enough to feed a crowd. It uses common ingredients and is easily adaptable. This recipe calls for premade Italian dressing, my favorite is Drew's Organics brand, which has real and recognizable ingredients. For the pasta, you need something that will drink in all of the delicious dressing. I love rotini for its delicious visual appeal alongside the other ingredients.
What's in this deliciously Easy Italian Pasta Salad?
- Pasta - Of course, there is pasta. The best noodles for pasta salad include rotini, penne, elbow macaroni, and farfalle. As far as gluten-free pasta, I have been told that Banza pasta works well in pasta salads.
- Cheese - Use cheddar, Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, or Colby. The most economical thing to do is to cut the cheese into cubes yourself. However, you can buy it already cubed as well.
- Salami - When you cut it, use your fingers to separate the pieces before adding them to the pasta.
- Olives - I love canned black olives with Italian dishes. They bring me back to childhood. The canned black olives work really great in this salad but pitted kalamata olives are delightful as well.
- Vegetables - This recipe calls for cherry or grape tomatoes, in addition to diced bell pepper. For the bell pepper, use whatever color you'd like.
- Dressing - The "easy" part of this recipe is the already made Italian dressing. Use whatever brand you enjoy best, but choose a brand with good ingredients.
Other Recipes You'll Love
This easy Italian pasta salad is an open palette, the recipe is incredibly adaptable to what you have on hand. No matter which way you decide to go with the ingredients, I know you will enjoy it! Pair this salad alongside your favorite grilled dishes.
Easy Italian Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb rotini pasta
- 1 cup salami diced
- 1 cup cheddar cheese cubed
- 1 green bell pepper diced
- 1½ cups grape tomatoes sliced in half
- 1 2.25 oz can sliced vine ripe olives drained
- 1¼ cups Italian Dressing
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente. (See box for cooking times.) Drain. Rinse with cold water, and drain again.
- In a large bowl, combine the cooled pasta, salami, cheese, bell pepper, tomatoes, and olives. Toss to combine until everything is well incorporated. Pour the dressing over the mixture, and toss again until everything is well coated.
- Allow the salad to sit in the refrigerator overnight before serving.
Notes
- Substitutions:
- Cheese: Crumbled Feta, Cubed Monterey Jack, Mini Mozzarella balls
- Olives: Kalamata, or omit
- Salami: Pepperoni
Nutrition
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