Italian Pasta Salad Recipe - Yummy!

We love pasta salads! I think they’re a great dish to throw together for a picnic, a barbecue, or a cookout. Pasta Salad is a nice change from potato salad, which is another one of our favorite side dishes for the occasions I mentioned. I don’t always have potatoes on hand. Spuds don’t keep forever before going bad, but dried pasta, on the other hand, has a very long shelf life. I practically always have a box or two in the pantry, so I can make a side salad almost any time. Today, I’m sharing with you my original recipe for Italian pasta salad. It was a big hit at our last cookout! The creamy salad was wonderful with the spicy BBQ pork we served. To make the dish even heartier, you might want to add salami or diced ham. You might also want to include some shredded cheese, like mozzarella, for example.

Pasta salad is easy to make! First, choose the type of pasta you want to use. For salad, I usually prefer elbow macaroni, Rotini, penne, bowtie, or Cellentani. The hollow tubes and the nooks and crannies of these pasta shapes hold onto a lot of the dressing. Of course, you might prefer using a different type of pasta.

You’ll need to cook the pasta to your desired texture. Don’t get it too soft, however. When the pasta has been cooked in boiling salt water with a tiny bit of oil, pour it into a colander and run cold water over it. Do this until the pasta is at room temperature. Next, I usually chill the pasta in the fridge, covered, for a few minutes.

When I’m ready to make the pasta salad, I separate the individual noodles with my hands in a large bowl. I add the other ingredients I want to use, and then I toss everything with a dressing. What type of dressing to use is up to you. Most cooks create a dressing from a mixture of oil, vinegar, mayonnaise, sour cream, bottled salad dressings, sugar, herbs, and/or spices. I once had a pasta salad with a honey-mustard dressing, and it was very good.

The playing field is wide open when it comes to pasta salad ingredients! some common additions include pickles, diced onion, scallions, diced or chopped celery, bell pepper, pimientos, jalapenos, sweet pickled peppers, green olives, black olives, cherry or grape tomatoes, fresh broccoli florets, etc. You might also like to add some meats, like crumbled bacon, cooked diced chicken, boiled shrimp, cooked sausage slices, or diced ham. Chopped boiled eggs also make a nice addition, as do grated or shredded cheeses.

This is a really tasty Italian pasta salad! It’s savory, creamy, and slightly sweet. It’s full of other stuff besides pasta, too. It’s sort of like pizza in a bowl, without the crust, of course. It provides the flavors of tomato, parmesan, bell pepper, onion, black olives, pepperoni, and Italian seasonings – everything I love on my pizzas. This is a great side dish to serve with practically any entrée or main dish, including hamburgers, grilled chicken, baked ham, or hot dogs.