Italian Pasta Salad – Eat Your self Skinny

This EASY Italian Pasta Salad is loaded with juicy tomatoes, cucumbers, recent mozzarella, spicy salami, pepperoncini, crimson onion and olives all tossed along with a zesty do-it-yourself Italian dressing!

This Italian pasta salad recipe is arms down one in all our absolute favourite pasta salads.  So many flavorful elements like spicy salami, juicy tomatoes, recent mozzarella, pepperoncini, tossed with heat pasta and essentially the most scrumptious do-it-yourself Italian dressing!  This straightforward Italian pasta salad is ideal for picnics or cookouts and makes an important facet dish when grilling hen, fish or steak.  The very best half is that this pasta salad may be loved heat or chilly and has SO a lot taste in each single chew!

Why You’ll Love this Recipe

• Mild, wholesome and SO flavorful!
• Simple to make and comes collectively in simply quarter-hour.
• The Italian dressing additionally tastes nice on high of salads or a marinade for hen, shrimp or steak.
• Good addition to summer time events, cookouts or a easy facet dish at residence!

Components You’ll Want

• pasta – for this recipe I used rotini noodles, however be happy to make use of any kind of curly/corkscrew pasta resembling cavatappi or fusilli.  The nooks within the pasta actually seize maintain of the dressing properly! You possibly can additionally use farfalle or penne pasta. 
• veggies – for this pasta salad I used sliced cherry tomatoes (or grape tomatoes), crisp cucumbers and crimson onion, however you can additionally add in different greens resembling chopped bell peppers, broccoli or asparagus.
• mozzarella cheese – I used mozzarella cheese pearls (often known as Bocconcini), however you can additionally use giant balls or slices of mozzarella and easy reduce them into items.
• salami – spicy salami actually provides this pasta salad a lot taste, however be happy to make use of no matter salami or sausage you want finest.
• pepperoncini – that is fully non-compulsory, however provides a kick of taste and spice to this Italian pasta salad! You possibly can additionally add in some crimson pepper flakes for much more spice.
• olives – I used sliced kalamata olives, however be happy to make use of black olives (and even inexperienced olives), for those who favor.
• recent herbs – a mix of chopped recent parsley and recent basil.
• dressing – this straightforward do-it-yourself Italian dressing is what makes this pasta salad so dang scrumptious! Made with a mix of olive oil, vinegar, parmesan cheese, garlic and spices, it provides a lot taste to each chew!

Learn how to Make Italian Pasta Salad

1. Chop veggies and herbs.  This is likely to be essentially the most time-consuming half, however hey play that podcast or blast some music – I promise it’s price all of the chopping!  Slice the tomatoes, cucumbers and crimson onion, roughly chop the salami, kalamata olives and recent herbs.
2. Boil the pasta.  Convey a big pot of salted water to a boil and cook dinner the pasta in line with the package deal instructions till al dente. Drain the pasta and rinse with chilly water to cease the cooking course of.
3. Make the dressing.  Whereas the pasta is cooking, you’ll be able to whip up the Italian dressing!  Merely whisk collectively the olive oil, vinegar, parmesan cheese, dijon mustard, honey, garlic, dried herbs, salt and pepper in a jar or bowl and put aside till prepared to make use of. 
4. Toss the salad.  In a big bowl, combine collectively the cooked pasta, chopped veggies, salami, mozzarella balls, pepperoncini, olives and recent herbs. Drizzle all the things with the Italian dressing, giving it a very good toss, and season with extra salt and pepper, as wanted. 
5. Marinate.  You’ll be able to both serve this instantly or marinate for a couple of hours earlier than serving. To marinate, cowl the pasta salad and place it within the fridge permitting the flavors to marinate for a couple of hours and even in a single day. I even like to order just a little further dressing to toss proper earlier than serving for the reason that pasta actually soaks up quite a lot of it.

Prepping and Storage

To Retailer: The beauty of this pasta salad is that it tastes nice heat OR chilly and can last as long as 3 to 4 days in your fridge.  Simply make certain to retailer any leftovers in a sealed, hermetic container. 

To Prep: The Italian French dressing may be made as much as every week forward of time and saved within the fridge prior to creating the pasta salad. Simply make certain to let the dressing sit at room temp at the very least quarter-hour earlier than tossing with with the pasta salad and provides the dressing a very good shake to combine all of it up.

Extra Pasta Salad Recipes

Hope you all get pleasure from this Simple Italian Pasta Salad and for those who love this as a lot as we do, please depart me ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ beneath and don’t neglect to tag me on Instagram utilizing the hashtag #eatyourselfskinny! I like seeing all of your scrumptious recreations!