Pasta salad is one of the BEST side dishes at a summer get together. If you don’t agree, then let’s agree to disagree 🙂 Although I will agree, pouring an Italian like dressing over pasta doesn’t exactly sound appealing. I wanted to create a dish that was fresh, using a dressing that is made fresh and doesn’t come from a bottle. It’s just as easy, but twice as delicious, as the classic pasta dish you’ve come to love!
When developing the dressing, I wanted to have a zingy, flavorful, bright dressing that would make you want to go back for another bite! I used a mix of both fresh and dried herbs, but you can use either! If my garden is in bloom I’ll use fresh basil and oregano, but you can easily use both dried herbs. I also use a good amount of dressing because the noodle will absorb some of it. Yes that helps with the flavor, but when you’re serving you still want that dressing to coat every bite! Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to come together.
The prep:
The prep is the most work you’ll do for this whole recipe. I try to enlist some help or buy the ingredients pre-chopped, but in the end, it only takes 15 minutes. I like to pay attention to my knife cuts for this recipe because you want all of the bites to make sense. The pasta should be the largest element and the peppers should all be the same size. The cheese, cucumber, and tomatoes will be a little larger than the peppers.
This is one of my favorite side dishes. It will stay good in the fridge for up to 5 days! Let me know your thoughts on the recipe in the comment section below 🙂
Fresh Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb Rotini pasta
- 1 orange pepper, diced about 1 cup
- 1 yellow pepper, diced about 1 cup
- 1 green pepper, diced about 1 cup
- 1 cup seedless cucumber, diced
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- ½ cup red onion, diced
- 8 oz white sharp cheddar cheese, cubed
For the dressing:
- ¾ cup olive oil
- ⅓ cup red wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp fresh basil or 1 tablespoon of dried basil
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to directions, strain, and set aside. In a large bowl combine the peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and cheese. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients. Stir the pasta into the vegetables until everything is evenly distributed. While stirring, pour in the dressing, and continue to stir until evenly coated.
- Refrigerate the pasta salad until needed. Before serving, stir to redistribute the dressing.
This pasta salad is the perfect dish for summer! It was super easy and quick to whip up. I love having all of the different color veggies and the cubed cheese was a great idea! Thanks for the awesome recipe.
This pasta salad was so yummy! I made it for a bunch of friends and everybody loved it. The homemade dressing was delicious, easy to make and really added the perfect flavor. I will be making this again!
The best pasta salad I’ve made! The recipe is simple and quick if you need to bring something to a party. My favorite part was the dressing — it’s not your usual “bottle of Italian salad dressing” flavor. It’s fresh and has the perfect tangy/sweet flavor. Already hoping she incorporates this dressing into more recipes!
Love that you enjoyed it so much!! I’ll think about how else I can use the dressing 🙂
Nothing I love more than peppers in a dish! This salad was great and the perfect thing to make for a warm sunny day at the lake!
Yes this sounds perfect for a lake weekend! 🙂