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Easy Italian pasta salad!! this simple pasta salad recipe has rotini, fresh mozzarella, onions, piccolo tomatoes, olives and salami in it. it is drenched in the best homemade Italian dressing ever. Yass it is officially summer and with the sun out now, you are guaranteed easy and quick delicious recipes here.
I know I have posted 3 Italian recipes in a row but really, you can’t have a good Italian pasta salad without an Italian dressing and Italian seasoning. Be rest assured I have got you covered on all three hence the back to back Italian recipes.. Own this year’s summer picnics, potlucks, parties and barbeques by making this easy Italian pasta salad.
What is in my easy Italian pasta salad
Pasta
Piccolo tomatoes
Mozzarella
Olives
Onions
Salami
Chopped parsley for garnish
Like I mentioned earlier, this is an easy recipe that only require few ingredients. A great crowd pleaser and it is flavourful. I love the fact that you have all that flavour coming through from the olives, the juiciness from the tomatoes, the zing and tangy flavour from the salad dressing yet not one is overpowering the other.
How to make Italian Pasta salad
I know you would ask. Well, to make a good pasta salad, you would need pasta obviously. Pasta cooked in salted water. I have never cooked pasta without salt before and if by chance I forget to add some, I can make up for it when I add the pasta to the sauce. In the case of this easy pasta salad, you cannot but use salted pasta. It will be unforgivable if you serve people bland pasta salad.
While you are waiting for the pasta to cook, prepare the rest of the ingredients and keep them refrigerated.
Chop the onions, olives, mozzarella if you are not using pearls.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, add a little bit of oil (this helps it from sticking) add the rest of the ingredients, toss together to combine, lastly, drizzle some Italian dressing on the pasta salad. Mix to combine and put in the fridge to chill for some few hours before serving.
Tips
Make sure you cook the pasta in salted water.
Avoid using mushy pasta, for pasta salad, I would cook my pasta a minute longer than usual but still aldente.
Make this salad a light or main meal by pairing it with protein of choice like chicken, fish, beef or roasted vegetables.
I won’t say you should avoid store bought dressing, but if you could, try and make yours. Trust me it tastes way better than store bought.
Make this pasta salad vegetarian, omit the salami or any other type of meat used.
This pasta salad tastes better the next day
Easy Italian Pasta Salad
Equipment
- Salad bowl
Ingredients
- 2 cups uncooked rotini Pasta
- 11/2 cups Piccolo tomatoes
- 1 cup Mozzarella cut into cubes
- ½ cup Olives cut in halves
- 1/3 cup red onions chopped use more if desired
- 90 g Salami chopped
- 1/3 cup homemade italian dressing use more if desired
- 1 tbsp parsley chopped
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in salted water (use about 2 tsp of salt) till aldente. I recommend you cook it a minute longer than recommended on the package. This should cook between 6 to 10 minutes depending on the brand of pasta you are using. Drain the pasta once cooked, add a little oil (about 1 tablespoon) this prevents the pasta from sticking.
- Add the pasta to a salad bowl then follow on with the rest of the ingredients. Add the Italian salad dressing and mix till well combined.
- Serve immediately or refrigerate and serve cold.
Notes
If you made this easy Italian pasta salad recipe, don’t forget to leave me feedback. Tag me @myactivekitchen on Instagram and save away to your Pinterest.
ATB
Ajoke x
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