Italian Pasta Salad
This is a yummy, simple Italian Pasta Salad. It is the perfect salad for summer. Whether it is just for you and your family or if you take it to a barbecue. The Italian dressing we use on this is the best too.
Welcome to our family recipe blog where we like to share the recipes we make in hopes that we can help you make yummy dishes you and your family will love. You will find hundreds of recipes that we love and hope you will too. Here are some recipe links to continue your search: Scotchmallow Cookies, Cheeseburger Stuffed French Bread, Buffalo Wild Wings Boneless Honey BBQ Wings, Chicken Garlic French Bread Pizza, Egg Drop Soup, Easy Lemon Chicken, Almond Joy Fudge, Classic Chocolate Mint Brownies, Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad and Carne Asada Tacos.
I love Rogliano’s Italian dressing. We find it at Harmon’s grocery stores. Of course, you can just use your favorite Italian dressing.
This is such a great salad for get-togethers. It is one of my daughters favorite salads. She loves the little pepperoni and cubed cheese added to it. I really like the diced or shredded chicken, especially if it is from a rotisserie chicken. I am really hungry for this salad now!
Ingredients Needed For Italian Pasta Salad:
16 ounces pasta, cooked, drained, and rinsed
3 cups English cucumbers, sliced and cut in half
3 cups grape tomatoes, sliced in half
1/2 red onion, diced
Yellow bell pepper, diced
Orange bell pepper, diced (or green bell pepper)
6 ounce can black olives, sliced
3 cups broccoli, cut up
16 or 24 ounce bottle Rogliano’s or Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing (or your favorite Italian dressing).
Option: add cooked and chopped chicken breasts, or mini pepperoni, and diced cheese.
How to Make Italian Pasta Salad:
Cook desired pasta according to the package directions. I like to cook the pasta to-firm. When pasta is desired tenderness, drain the water from the pasta (using a colander) and rinse in cold water. Allow time for the pasta to drain well.
While the pasta cooks and drains, prepare the other ingredients. Slice the cucumber, tomatoes and olives. Clean the seeds out of the yellow and orange bell peppers and chop them into desired size pieces. Dice the onion and cut up the broccoli.
If using chicken, pepperoni and/or cheese, prepare those ingredients.
Place all ingredients into a large bowl.
Cover salad with enough Italian dressing to coat and mix well.
Refrigerate to chill before serving.
Before serving you will probably need to add more Italian dressing because some of the dressing will be absorbed. For this reason I buy the 24 ounce bottle of Kraft Zesty Italian or two bottles of the Rogliano’s Italian Dressing. We use Italian Dressing on garden salads so, I know if I have leftover dressing, we will use it.
Cook’s Note:
This is a great salad to make the day before you need it.
Before serving, check to see if you may need a bit more dressing.
Other Recipes You Will Love: ❤️
Italian Pasta Salad
A delicious and versatile pasta salad.
Ingredients
- 16 ounces pasta cooked, drained, and rinsed
- 3 cups english cucumbers cut in half and sliced
- 3 cups grape tomatoes sliced in half
- 1/2 red onion or more, if desired
- 1 yellow bell pepper diced
- 1 orange bell pepper diced
- 3 cups broccoli cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 6 oz. can black olives sliced
- 12-16 ounce bottle Italian dressing I love Rogliano's but you can use your favorite
Optional Ingredients:
- Colby Jack cheese cubed, optional
- chopped chicken or mini pepperoni optional
Instructions
-
Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and rinse in cold water. Allow time to drain while you prepare the other ingredients. Place in a large bowl.
-
Add prepared vegetables, (chopped chicken or mini pepperoni, and cubed cheese, if desired) to pasta in the large bowl.
-
Cover ingredients with Italian dressing and stir to mix and combine.
-
Cover and refrigerate to chill.
-
Serve and enjoy!
Disclaimer:
All of the thoughts and opinions here, on our family food and recipe blog, are our own. The affiliate links (if you click on one or more) here pay us a tiny commission that will not cost you anything. The commissions help us run this web-site. We appreciate your support! Thank you so much!
We all want to thank you for visiting and trying recipes from our family recipe blog. Your support is very much appreciated. All of us are hoping that all of you are staying healthy, strong and happy. Have a fantastic day and an even better week. Have fun cooking and remember to get the kids involved where it is safe to do so. They may love it and it is a great activity for quality family time. Family and friends are the best!
