Italian Pasta Salad

Italian Pasta Salad: a classic cold pasta dish with fresh veggies, cheese, and meat. Tossed with Italian dressing, this pasta salad is a great side dish! 

Pasta Salad with Italian Dressing

Summer is all about time spent with family and friends centered around picnics and BBQ’s and all the yummy food. This pasta salad is one of our favorite dishes to pass and feeds a bunch! It’s filled with fresh veggies, meat and cheese.  It’s tossed with store bought Italian dressing making this a dish that’s easy to prepare with minimal ingredients.

Ingredients Needed

The best part about this Italian pasta salad is you can add as many ingredients as you want.  You can swap out what you don’t like and add what you do.  For instance, in most pasta salads there are black olives, however; my kids and I are not fans of them so we just leave them out. Some of our favorite ingredients added to our pasta salad are:

• Tomato
• Bell Peppers, any color
• Ham Cubes
• Cheddar cheese cubes
• Salami, chopped
• Pepperoni, chopped
• Fresh Parmesan Cheese
• Italian dressing, homemade or store bought

How to make Italian Pasta Salad:

1. Cook pasta al dente according to package directions. Rinse under cold water.
2. Chop your tomatoes, peppers, salami, pepperoni, and cheese, into bite sized pieces.
3. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Add Italian dressing and toss.
4. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving. Once ready to serve toss and add a bit more dressing if needed, as the noodles can soak up the dressing. 

For more delicious picnic recipes you should try these:

• Homemade Sloppy Joes
• Ambrosia Fruit Salad
• Easy Baked Macaroni & Cheese
• Roasted Parmesan Green Beans