The Ultimate Pasta Salad

added tomatoes and mushrooms but will definitely make again

loved it

We liked this recipe. Great for summer!

I add carrots, halved cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, red or green peppers, celery, sunflower seeds….sometimes I add pepper jack parm salad dressing.

Excellent! I’ve been making something similar for years. Makes a nice main dish salad during the summer but can also double as a side dish at a BBQ

This is the best pasta salad I have ever made. I added tomatoes, bell pepper, extra cheese and more oil and vinegar.

Easy to make. We loved it.

Thanks Helene. This is an excellent pasta salad. I especially liked the addition of fresh broccoli and cauliflower. That adds a nice crunch to the salad as well as some very healthy vegetables. Also, thanks for your follow up note. I also found that the next day the oil and vinegar dressing seemed to disappear. All I did was add a little more red wine vinegar. I do like a vinegar taste in the salad. This recipe makes a huge amount so it’s great if you’re serving a crowd and it’s also nice to have some leftovers for lunches during the week. Also, so easy to put this together.

There are many cured Italian meats, pastas, cheeses, vegetables, and olives that can be used in a pasta salad. Seasonings: herbs, spices, aromatics, and vinegars can vary as well. Combine lettuce, Italian meats: pepperoni, salami, etc; chopped hot pickled vegetables (Giardiniera), Kalamata olives, roasted sweet red peppers, marinated mushrooms, and artichoke hearts. Imagine. Create. Experiment. “A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.” ~Thomas Keller Vivere, Amare, Ridere e Mangiare Bene! Translates to: To Live, To Love, To Laugh and To Eat Well! Buon Appetito! Translates to: Good appetite!

I didn’t exactly make this as written, but its a good starting point. I used two bags of Wacky Mac (24 ounces) versus the 16 ounces that the recipe specifies. I used the same amount of broccoli, cauliflower, red onion, garlic, pepperoni, cheese (although I used a mix of cheddar and mozzarella) and olives. I also added a small package of grape tomatoes and some Parmesan cheese. For the dressing, I used two .7 ounce packages of Good Seasons packets and followed the directions on the package, but using olive oil. The finished product was delicious, but almost a little too wet when it was all finished. To my surprise, though, when I got up in the morning, the salad had absorbed a lot of the dressing and it was a little too dry, so I had to add some bottled Italian dressing I had. Very good and easy to make, especially for a large crowd or a dish for a potluck. I’m sure my recipe served probably 25-30 people, as side dishes.

This excellent pasta salad is jam packed with yummy ingredients, and is hearty enough to eat as a meal. I have made it for parties and everyone loves it and requests the recipe. The recipe makes a ton of servings, so I always take some leftovers to work to share with others.

I’ve made this a bunch of times already. It’s my “go-to” pasta salad. As another reviewer stated, it’s a meal in itself. I have improvised according to what I’ve had in the fridge. This time I didn’t have cauliflower, just broccoli and some diced provolone cheese to make up for the little amount of Mozzerella I had. I use turkey pepperoni to cut down on the calories. You really won’t be able to tell the difference. The dressing is perfect. Thank you for a great recipe!

Made this for our barbecue and it was a hit with my family and guests

I don’t understand the 4 1/2 star rating for this recipe. I made for a get-together over the weekend and not much got eaten. I thought it was too oily (guess I should’ve added the oil gradually) but at the same time, dry. Too much pepperoni, in my opinion, and I didn’t even use as much as called for. Actually, too much mozzarella also. All of this could be easily fixed if I made it again, but it just didn’t impress me enough to try. Sorry.

Kudos Helene! This is one of the best pasta salad receipe around. I added grape tomatoes and Wishbone Zesty Italian dressing instead of olive oil, Italian dressing, etc. I made enough for 15 people and I thought I would come home from a BBQ with plenty left over but it the salad was devoured.

I’m sorry to say this, but… not good. Have you ever eaten a bowl of something, waiting for it to be really good, and it never gets there? That was this for me. It had a pretty look with all of the colors, but the taste was not good. Too much twang from the oil/vinegar mixture, too much of a bite from the raw red onions, and just no flavor. I picked-out the noodles to eat them alone or with the mozzarella. I took it to a picnic tonight… no one said ‘yum’. And it took waaay longer than 15 minutes to make, what with all of that chopping, so it was really disappointing to spend all of that time right before the event and then to have it be not-so-good. I’m sorry to be harsh…. It was just really missing a ‘yummy’ factor. Sorry.

Yum! I omitted the pepperoni and added in artichokes and extra garlic! To make it wetter, I put in some of the olive juice and artichoke juice. Light and delish!

I finally found a perfect pasta salad. I dislike the ones where it calls for a bottle of Italian dressing because it’s so overpowering and I am not a fan of it to begin with. This was so light and refreshing and you could actually taste all the ingredients. Great recipe that will be a staple from now on.

used what I had on hand – small pasta, only added brocolli, pepperoni, minced garlic, shredded cheese, mrs. dash salad supreme seasonings and balsamic vinaigrette to taste. Refrigerated overnight. Delicious!!

Yummy! I left out the pepperoni as I’m a vegetarian, and used pepper jack cheese instead of mozzarella to still have a bit of a kick.

Skipped the pepperoni, used feta instead of mozzarella, and used a combo of red wine and balsamic vinegar. Great flavor, my guests all loved it.