Italian Pasta Salad

Refreshing Italian Pasta Salad - with rotini pasta, fresh, crunchy vegetables and loads of flavors.

This has fresh ingredients and is easily customizable to include your favorites.

I love this because it is a wonderful make-ahead dish and a crowd-pleaser. The recipe is very simple. Perfect for your summer picnics and backyard barbecues. Enjoy!

Having a few pasta recipes at hand is a lifesaver when you are in a time crunch and have to get dinner ready for the family - from a simple pasta loaded with asparagus to an Indian-inspired one - I have a shared few recipes over time.

This vegetarian pasta salad with Italian flavors is a summer favorite. Fresh salad with a homemade salad dressing.

Ingredients

What Kind Of Pasta Works Best?

Choose a dried pasta over fresh pasta.

Think of shapes that have nooks & crannies or spirals that the herbs, spices, etc can stick on to.

Shorter shapes like farfalle, spiral, Gemelli, rotini, etc are great pasta shapes to use in a salad.

In this recipe, I have used rotini. To give more color to the salad, I used the tri-color rotini pasta

You can experiment with gluten-free pasta if you are following a gluten-free diet. There are some high protein pasta in the market if you want to include them in your diet.

What Vegetables To Use In the Salad?

Think of colorful fresh vegetables that you want to include in your diet - bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, zucchini, onions, etc.

In my made-from-scratch pasta salad, I use green & yellow bell peppers, cucumbers, onion, olives, cherry tomatoes to make the salad fresh, colorful & refreshing.

TIPS TO KEEP IN MIND FOR VEGETABLES

-Always use fresh vegetables for the best results. Do not use wilted or vegetables, not at their peak of freshness in any salad.

Cucumbers - Use English cucumber or Persian cucumbers. If you cannot find these, then you may use regular cucumbers, but remove the seeds.

Tomatoes - They are juicy, colorful, fresh, and kinda sweet. Definitely a good ingredient to use in the pasta salad. I recommend using cherry or grape tomatoes for the best results. If you are planning to use regular tomatoes, then deseed them before chopping.

Onions - I like finely chopped red onions for this recipe.

Deseeding watery vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, etc prevents a soggy, runny pasta salad.

-Dice the vegetables small so that you can handle the salad well with your fork.

-I also use some pitted black olives - they add a lot of flavor to the salad.

Find the perfect balance between the vegetables & pasta.

**TIP**
Grate the rest of the hard mozzarella, toss it some cornstarch, and freeze for later use.

More Details About the Salad Dressing

The salad dressing is the actual embellishment to any salad. Fresh, homemade, zero-waste salad dressing that is easy to make and customize to suit your taste is always a winner.

A good salad dressing should have a balance of salty, a hint of sweetness, acidity, heat, and flavors - all perfectly balanced according to your taste.

Saltiness - We have salt & salt from pitted olives.

Acidity - We are introducing acidity with some red wine vinegar.

Heat -From red chilli flakes and freshly ground black pepper.

Flavors - This is an Italian-inspired cold pasta salad - so think herbs that are used predominantly in Italian cuisine - oregano, basil, parsley, etc. If your grocer carries some ready-made Italian seasoning, you can use that too.

Sweetness - Yes, I did mention a hint of sweetness in the salad dressing. But in this recipe, it actually comes from the vegetables used and not in the dressing. Just a subtle hint of sweetness. :).

What I like best about this recipe because the salad dressing is pretty simple to put together and we are making it fresh & not wasting any salad dressing. Since we are making it from scratch, you can always adjust the flavors to suit your family's taste.

Fresh Herbs Or Dried Herbs?

This is a make-ahead salad that you can prepare ahead of time and refrigerate until ready to use. The flavors develop over time.

I do not recommend using fresh herbs in this recipe. Fresh herbs wilt and give a limp look to your salads.

Dried herbs have a ton of flavor and blend very well with the other ingredients in this recipe.

Meal Prep Tips & Leftover Ideas

This is an ideal make-ahead salad that develops more flavor with time. Once you mix the salad, refrigerate it for at least 4-6 hours (overnight for best results) before serving.

Leftovers can be refrigerated in an airtight container for 3-4 days.

How To Cook Pasta In An Instant Pot?

Until I got my instant pot, I used to cook pasta on the stovetop just followed the instructions on the package. The trick to the pasta dishes is to keep the pasta al-dente.

Instant pot changed the pasta game for me :). It is so easy to prepare pasta in my Instant Pot, that now I regularly use my Instant Pot to cook pasta dishes.

I have outlined how to cook pasta in my cajun pasta recipe - following the same principle, the rotini pasta takes about 3 minutes to get done. [Assuming the cooking time on the stovetop for the rotini pasta is 7 minutes].

The above method ensures perfect al-dente pasta every single time.

Serving Suggestions

Additional Notes

• 1 CUP = 250 ML. (US cups are typically 240 ml. You can use US cups with no significant change to the dish)
• Grams to cups measurements – we strive to provide these conversions as accurately as possible. There might be some slight variations depending on the brand, weighing scale, etc.
• Serving size – 8 OZ pasta typically serves 3-4 people. Since this is served as a side dish, this might serve more people. Adjust the serving size to suit your dietary needs.
• This is a pretty forgiving recipe. You can adjust the vegetables & seasonings ingredients to taste.
• Skip the red chilli flakes if you do not like them.
• Taste as you go. Add more or less of the dressing ingredients as per your taste.

More Pasta Dishes

Italian Pasta Salad

Refreshing Italian Pasta Salad - with rotini pasta, fresh, crunchy vegetables, and loads of flavors.

This has fresh, healthy ingredients and is easily customizable to include your favorites.

I love this because it is a wonderful make-ahead dish and a crowd-pleaser. The recipe is very simple. Perfect for your summer picnics and backyard barbecues. Enjoy!

Print Recipe Save Saved!

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 3 minutes

Additional Time 4 hours

Total Time 4 hours 18 minutes

Servings 4 -6

Ingredients

  

• 8 oz rotini pasta

to cook pasta

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 cups water

for the salad

• 125 grams approx. ¾-1 cup English cucumber/Persian Cucumber; diced small
• 150 grams 1 cup mozzarella; diced small
• 50 grams approx. (½ cup yellow bell pepper
• 100 grams approx. ¾-1 cupgreen bell pepper; diced small
• 100-120 grams 10-12 numbers cherry tomatoes; quartered
• 50 grams approx. ½ cuponion; finely chopped
• 8-10 pitted olives; diced small

salad Dressing

• 3 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• ½ teaspoon red chilli flakes; optional
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

 

how to make pasta salad

cook pasta

• Add pasta to the steel pot of the Instant Pot. Add salt, olive oil, and water. Give a quick stir. Latch the Instant Pot lid. Steam release valve in the SEALING position. PRESSURE COOK (MANUAL MODE in some models) for 3 minutes. (Note: assuming the pasta cooks in 7 minutes on the stovetop). Quick pressure release. [Be careful here. There might be heavy foam build-up]. Drain the pasta to the bowl and pour some cold water to fully cover the pasta. Set aside to cool.

salad

• Drain the cold pasta into a large mixing bowl. To the mixing bowl, add cucumber, tomatoes, green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, mozzarella, onion, and olives.
• Top with dressing ingredients - olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, parsley, basil, red chilli flakes (if using), salt, and pepper to taste.
• Mix everything well. Do a taste test and adjust any seasonings to suit your taste.
• Cover the bowl with a cling film and refrigerate for at least 2-4 hours (or overnight for best results).
• Transfer to a serving bowl. Refrigerate leftovers.

Video

Notes

• 1 CUP = 250 ML. (US cups are typically 240 ml. You can use US cups with no significant change to the dish)
• Grams to cups measurements – we strive to provide these conversions as accurately as possible. There might be some slight variations depending on the brand, weighing scale, etc.
• Serving size – 8 OZ pasta typically serves 3-4 people. Since this is served as a side dish, this might serve more people.
• This is a pretty forgiving recipe. You can adjust the vegetables & seasonings ingredients to taste.
• Skip the red chilli flakes if you do not like them.
• Taste as you go. Add more or less of the dressing ingredients as per your taste.
• prep time - time required to chop the vegetables and get everything ready. cook time - time required to cook the pasta (plan for a few additional minutes for the instant pot to reach full pressure). additional time - time to refrigerate the salad for the flavors to develop.