Pasta Salad With Italian Dressing

This pasta salad with Italian dressing recipe uses vibrant colors with nutritious meats and veggies to produce bold tangy flavors that are irresistible.

Course Salad

Cuisine Italian, Mediterranean

Keyword italian dressing, pasta salad recipes

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 10

Total Time 30

Servings servings

Calories 308kcal

Author Kathleen

Ingredients

1 (12-ounce) package tri-color rotini pasta
1 cup Italian dressing
8 ounces Genoa salami sliced into 1/4 inch strips
2 (8-ounce) Mozzarella ball in water drained and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup parmesan cheese shredded
1 (7-ounce) Pack dry Italian style salad dressing mix
1/2 cup red onion chopped
1 red pepper chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 (10.5-ounce) container grape tomatoes cut in half
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes sliced
1 cup sliced Pepperoncinis, rinse and drained
1 (3.8-ounce) can sliced black olives rinse and drained
1 cup fresh basil chopped
1 cup fresh parsley chopped
Taste for salt and pepper, Italian Seasoning, and sugar after mixed and cooled and in fridge 24 hours.

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Cook pasta (12-ounce) according to package directions, just until al dente, and drain well.
While pasta is still warm, toss it in a mixing bowl with Italian dressing (1 cup) and Italian style dressing salad mix (1 pack). Allow pasta to cool.
In a large serving bowl, mix the cooled pasta, salami (8 ounces), mozzarella cheese (16 ounces), parmesan cheese (1 cup), onion (1/2 cup), red bell pepper (1), green bell pepper (1), sundried tomatoes (1 cup), grape tomatoes (10.5-ounce), pepperoncini (1 cup), and olives (1 can).
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 6 hours or overnight.
When ready to serve, fold in fresh basil (1 cup) and parsley (1 cup). Adjust seasoning, and add olive oil, if needed. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Cook The Pasta: It’s always best to cook your pasta al dente, which is still a little firm in the middle. This typically takes around 7-9 minutes, but you’ll have to follow the instructions on the package.
Rinse The Pasta: It’s also important to rinse pasta to stop cooking but keep slightly warm to toss the pasta in the Italian dressing immediately after cooking because behind every great pasta dish is a tasty sauce. The warm starchy pasta will soak up some of the Italian dressing and take on life.
Chill The Pasta: Once your pasta salad recipe has come together, it can be really tempting to eat it right away. However, letting it sit for several hours in the fridge brings all those yummy flavors to the forefront and introduces them to each other for a perfectly balanced flavor profile. This way every single bite is like little flavor bombs going off inside your mouth.
Overnight is best but if you don’t have that much time at least give it a few hours. The longer the better.
Chop The Veggies: All those crisp summer veggies in this salad mean you’re gonna’ have to do some chopping. It’s inevitable. The thing is that if you can manage to chop everything roughly the same size, you’ll get a tantalizing myriad of flavors and textures in every single bite.
Chop The Herbs: You’ll also want to wait to incorporate the fresh herbs until serving time. The basil and parsley really add to the refreshing aromatic qualities of this pasta salad, but fresh herbs can be precarious. They don’t stand up well long-term so it’s best to enjoy them freshly chopped.

Nutrition