Pasta Italian Salad

This EASY Italian Pasta Salad is loaded with juicy tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh mozzarella, spicy salami, pepperoncini, red onion and olives all tossed together with a zesty from-scratch Italian dressing. Reliable for cookouts, picnics, parties and meal prep!

This Italian Pasta Salad recipe is everything you want in the reliable side dish during the summer months. Fresh, colorful, hearty, and bursting with bold Italian flavors in every bite! Tender pasta is tossed with juicy tomatoes, crisp cucumbers, silky mozzarella, savory salami, briny olives, pepperoncini, and plenty of fresh herbs, then coated in a zesty from-scratch Italian dress

Absolutely! In fact, this salad tastes even better after chilling for several hours or overnight. The flavors have time to meld together, making every bite even more satisfying.

What goes in

• 16 ounces rotini pasta
• 1 pint cherry (or grape) tomatoes, sliced
• 1 english cucumber, chopped
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella balls
• 4 ounces salami, sliced
• 3/4 cup kalamata olives, sliced
• 3/4 cup pepperoncini
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley and fresh basil, chopped
• Italian salad dressing

How it comes together

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, sprinkle in some salt, and cook the pasta according to the package directions until al dente.
2. Mix together the cooked pasta, chopped veggies, mozzarella, salami, pepperoncini, olives and fresh herbs in a wide bowl and drizzle the whole thing with the Italian dressing. Give it a good toss, season with additional salt and pepper, as needed.
3. You can either serve this immediately or marinate for a few hours before serving. To marinate, cover the pasta salad and place it in the fridge allowing the flavors to marinate for a few hours or even overnight. A cook even like to reserve a little extra dressing to toss right before serving since the pasta really soaks up a lot of it.