Italian Pasta Salad is one of our favorite pasta salad recipes. This is an easy, make-ahead salad that is perfect for meal prep. Every bite is loaded with rotini, salami, mozzarella, olives, healthy veggies, and a homemade creamy Italian Dressing.
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Pasta Salad Ingredients:
Italian Pasta Salad is a meal in itself with protein, grains and plenty of vegetables. It has vibrant Italian flavors with kalamata olives, fresh mozzarella cheese, salami, and parsley.
We love that you can change up the ingredients based on what you have on hand. Try substituting with diced bell pepper, or crunchy broccoli, or use Feta instead of Mozarella cheese to add some Greek flavors. P.S. If you’re feeling adventurous, roasting your own bell peppers will take this salad to the next level.
What is the Best Italian Dressing?
We love homemade Italian dressing for the best flavor and because you can use high-quality oil and seasonings. In a pinch, store-bought Italian dressings will work. We like Newman’s Own brand Italian dressing and Ken’s brand Italian dressing.
How to Make Pasta Salad Video Tutorial:
I hope this Pasta Salad Recipe becomes a new favorite for you. It makes meal prep so easy! If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our Youtube Channel and click the bell icon so you get a notification when we post a new video.
What is the Best Pasta for Salad?
We love rotini noodles for pasta salad. Rotini is the spiral-shaped pasta you will see in the photos here. You can buy them in the traditional pasta color or in a multicolor blend which can be really fun for a pasta salad. You can also experiment with different kinds of pasta such as shell pasta or macaroni.
How to Cook Pasta for Pasta Salad:
Cook your pasta in salted water according to package instructions until it is aldenté. Aldente means firm to the bite. Pasta that is overcooked can seem mushy in pasta salad and will absorb more dressing so make sure you don’t overcook. As soon as the pasta is aldenté, drain in a colander then rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process, chill the pasta, and rinse off excess starch to keep the pasta from sticking.
Cook’s Tip: Buttered pasta doesn’t work well for pasta salad so do not add butter or oil after your pasta is cooked. Rinsing in cold water is enough to prevent noodles from sticking together and there is plenty of oil in the salad dressing.
More Pasta Salad Recipes:
- Creamy Avocado Pasta Salad
- Caesar Pasta Salad
- Chicken Orzo Pasta Salad
- Cucumber Cauliflower Ditalini Pasta Salad
Italian Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 8 oz rotini pasta
- 6 oz salami, sliced into strips
- 10 oz cherry tomatoes, halved (3 cups)
- 1/2 English cucumber, diced
- 1/2 medium red onion, finely diced
- 8 oz fresh mozzarella, pearls or halved mozzarella balls
- 1/2 cup black olives, pitted and sliced
- 1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted and halved
- 1/2 cup roasted red peppers* drained and coarsely chopped
- 1/3 cup parsley, finely chopped
- 1 cup Italian dressing, or added to taste
Instructions
- Cook rotini pasta according to package instructions in salted water just until pasta is aldente (firm to the bite).
- While pasta cooks, prep remaining ingredients and make Italian Dressing.
- Add dressing just to the portion fo salad you plan to eat. Enjoy right away or cover and let the salad marinate for 1-3 hours before serving.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Really fantastic. I made this with grilled Italian sausage on Memorial Day for my wife and me. We loved it and will be making it on a regular basis. Thanks for an easy side dish that’s so good.
It’s my pleasure, Eric. So happy to hear that you enjoyed it last Memorial Day!
We don’t care for black olives. Could I use green olives or what could I sub
Hi Christina! You can substitute with another olive if you prefer, or leave them out. I hope you enjoy the recipe! 🙂
This is a lovely salad! At first I thought it may need more vinegar for my taste, but my advice is to let it marinate for a couple hours minimum. This will be my go to pasta salad. I just love it! Thank you for sharing. Mmmm
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite, Lisa!
This is super good! I would make it again! I think I added too much garlic to the Italian dressing (maybe my cloves were too large), so I’ll plan to use a little less next time.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Tori! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Wonderful recipe especially with your Italian Dressing! Highly recommend this dressing. Super easy and flavorful! Thank you!
Thank you Cheryl! I’m so happy you enjoyed that!
Tried your recipe…only difference..used smoked chicken & some crispy bacon pieces…was a winner all round with family..thank you
That’s wonderful. I’m so glad they enjoyed it! 🙂
This pasta salad is delicious! Question: You only use 8 oz of rotini pasta which is 1/2 box of Barilla rotini. For about 10-12 people, as a side dish at BBQ, would that be enough OR if you add 16 oz pasta would I double the rest of the recipe (or not) do you think? Have you ever made more than 8 oz of the pasta for a larger group? Thank you!
Hi Kathy! This recipe makes enough for 8 servings. If you want to make enough for 10-12, I recommend changing the serving size in the recipe card and it will adjust the ingredient list for you. To do that, hover your cursor over the number of servings in red lettering and slide right or left to decrease/increase the servings. I hope that helps.
WoW, Thanks Natasha! I had no idea that such an option existed! Very helpful, thanks a lot!!!
You’re very welcome, Kathy! It’s a neat tool. 🙂
This is a wonderful recipe. My celiac son in law loves it. I substituted with GF pasta, and make sure the meat is GF. This is the only pasta salad I make now. Thank you.
Hi Marg! I’m so glad you love this recipe and so glad that your son-in-law can enjoy it too! Thank you for the feedback.
I love these salads, I also use mini pepperoni’s and season it with Salad Supreme by McCormick.
Sounds delicious!
This is absolutely delicious and perfect on a hot summer day!! Where did you get your salad bowl? I need one! 🙂
I’m so glad you loved it, Joan! Thank you for your lovely review! You can find our favorite kitchen tools in our Amazon Affiliate Shop HERE.
if it’s the Sur La Table one, it’s “currently out of stock”. I’ll find it somewhere. Thank you Natasha!
This pasta salad is delicious and easy to make. I love making it for picnics and family gatherings. It is also fun to play with the ingredients, and swap different things and try new combinations. Love the homemade dressing. I use it by itself on other salads.
So glad you enjoy this recipe. Thank you for the review.
I put a flat cool whip cover over the cherry tomatoes and then you can run a knife right through all of them at once
A 5 star review from us! Such a lovely summer pasta salad. Made a batch yesterday for our dinner and husband’s lunch and used remaining ingredients and remaining 8oz pasta to make a new batch! It refrigerated great without added dressing. I made a few changes and recipe still turned out amazing. Did not include kalamata olives or roasted peppers. I did add artichokes, shredded parmesan cheese, green peppers and mozzarella cheese sticks. We used the Ken’s Italian dressing. Love that this salad can utilize leftover veggies in the fridge.
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Marta!
This is my go to pasta salad for all gatherings/parties or just weekend bbq! Make your dressing also! Can I put any fresh basil from garden or do you think it would over power the dressing? Thank you for amazing recipe! My family loves it and always requests it!
Hi Traci! So glad you and your family enjoy this recipe. I think that would be fine.
Salad looks very good. As soon as I use up my bottle of Italian Dressing, I’ll be making yours. By the way your hair is so cute pinned up like that.
Thank you for that wonderful compliment, Kathy!
Hi Natasha,
I was wondering are we allowed to use a different kind of cheese instead of mozzarella?
Thanks
Hi! Yes, that would be fine.
Going to make this today…but curious where you got the food containers you showed in the video. Thank you!
Sounds like a plan! Here’s the link to the containers, it’s in my Amazon Affiliate Store.
Made for our church luncheon and it was the first item gone. Delicious. You can add “anything” you like to make it your own. Will be a recipe added to My Favorites Box. Thank you!!
Sounds great! So good to hear that it was a huge hit, thank you for the review, Carla.
Yum! This sounds amazing. I’ve been searching for a recipe and this looks so good! Can’t wait to make.
Hi Monica! So glad you came across this recipe. I hope you love it!
Hi Natasha,
Would plain lowfat yogurt work for the dressing for the pasta salad? We have allergy issues with mayo.
Hi Angela, I haven’t tried those substitutions, so I can’t speak to that. Substitutions may hinder the recipe outcome. I always suggest making a recipe as written the first time around. If you happen to try the yogurt substitution, I’d love to know how it turns out!
I found this recipe last summer and my granddaughter likes it so much she started making it herself. It’s a really hearty salad and we especially love the homemade dressing! Thanks Natasha
You’re welcome, Kelley. Thank you for your good comments and feedback!