Italian Pasta Salad

Updated: Jul 31st, 2024 · By Bethany Kramer
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This Italian pasta salad is the perfect side dish to compliment your favorite summer meal! Each bite is filled with juicy tomatoes, marinated artichokes, fresh herbs, salami, and parmesan-covered pasta noodles. It’s bright and fresh in flavor and so easy to prepare!

In my humble opinion, pasta salad is the best of both worlds when it comes to salad! A little bit of pasta and a little bit of colorful vegetables and toppings.

This specific recipe has so many of my favorite antipasto ingredients involved such as salami, cheese, marinated artichokes, olives, and colorful vegetables to make it fresh and lighter. But really, you can customize it by adding whatever pasta salad ingredients you love too.

Aside from the wonderful toppings, I thought a really nice herbed vinaigrette would do the trick for a tangy flavor, and also lots of freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano to marry all the ingredients together. It certainly does the trick!

Key ingredients

Like many Italian salads, this recipe is full of fresh ingredients and flavor! And best of all, you can easily customize the ingredients to your liking.

Ingredients for Italian pasta salad in small bowls arranged on a tan background.

See the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and measurements.

Pasta: of course, this is essential for pasta salad! You can use any shape you like. I used fusilli because the twisty shape holds the dressing, cheese, and flavors really well.
Tomatoes: these are a must for some juiciness! I prefer cherry tomatoes because of how bite-sized and sweet they are in taste. But you can also use small diced tomatoes of any kind.
Red bell pepper: for some sweet crunch! You can also use any other bell pepper color or roasted red peppers.
Olives: I used black olives, but you could also add kalamata olives for some tang!
Artichokes: marinated artichokes add delicious flavor to this salad, but if you can’t find marinated the regular canned artichokes work just fine.
Red onion: is always a must for a good Italian salad. You can dice it or thinly slice it!
Garbanzo beans: for heartiness and protein!
Selami: for a salty and chewy bite, a nice salami will do. You can do thin slices or thicker cuts! Aged salami might not work for this salad because it’s tougher and tends to be chewier.
Cheese: if you want a more mild flavor cheese use fresh mozzarella balls or cut a block or ball into cubes, or for more flavor you can use provolone or a mild cheddar cheese.
Parmigiano Reggiano: freshly grated parm is a must for this pasta salad because it adds so much flavor and richness. Not to mention, the cheesiness coating each pasta noodle is what brings me back for each bite!
Dressing: I use a simple homemade Italian vinaigrette to dress this salad, which adds moisture and most of the flavor! For that, you’ll need quality olive oil, red wine vinegar, fresh basil, dried oregano, garlic, and maple syrup or honey.

How to Make It

  1. 1

    Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a bowl and cook the pasta as the package instructs for al dente. Strain and run some cold water over it to help it cool, then add the pasta to a large mixing bowl.

  2. 2

    Add the toppings. In the same bowl as the pasta, add the artichokes, peppers, olives, red onion, tomatoes, salami, mozzarella, herbs, and shredded parmesan cheese.

  3. 3

    Mix with the dressing. Then drizzle the dressing over top and mix all the pasta and salad ingredients together until completely incorporated.

A collage of three photos showing how to assemble a pasta salad. The first photo is a bowl with cooked pasta in it. The second photo is the bowl of pasta with Italian toppings. The third photo is the pasta mixed with the salad topping ingredients in the same bowl.

Recipe Variations

Make it gluten-free. If you’d like this pasta to be gluten-free friendly you can use your favorite gluten-free pasta. We like jovial noodles, but there’s a handful of lovely chickpea pasta brands out there too for added protein!

More toppings to add. To mix up the flavors, you can also add additional ingredients such as sun-dried tomatoes, white beans, roasted red peppers, fennel, cucumber, watermelon radish, arugula, or Mediterranean olives.

Tips for a Successful Pasta Salad

Choose the right pasta – the Best pasta shape for pasta salad. A mistake that’s often made for pasta salads is choosing the wrong-shaped pasta. You want a shape that will hold the dressing and cheese, and not have the ingredients slipping off the pasta. The perfect shapes to use are ones that have little crevices and pockets to trap flavor and ingredients, such as fusilli, rotini, medium-sized shells, and radiatore – just to name a few!

Cook the pasta to “Al Dente” – Since pasta is the star of the show we need to ensure it’s cooked perfectly and its shape actually hold ups while being topped with a handful of ingredients. Every pasta in a pasta salad should be cooked until “al dente” which means “to the tooth” in Italian, meaning it has a little bite to it. It’s not mushy or soft, but just right!

Always rinse the pasta – this is the only time you’ll ever hear me tell you to rinse your pasta under cold water! And that’s because it does three key things for pasta salad. 1) It cools the pasta quickly down to room temperature, which is perfect for pasta salad. 2) By cooling it down quickly with cold water, we are preventing the pasta from cooking any further. Remember, we want it al dente. 3) It removes the starches from the pasta that we typically want in cheesy pasta dishes, but we don’t need for pasta salad. So, don’t forget to rinse rinse rinse!

Don’t add the dressing until you’re ready to serve. The timing that you serve the dressing or vinaigrette on a pasta salad is everything. If you’re ready to serve it right away, toss it all with the dressing! However, if you have a gap of time and plan on serving this later, only add half of the salad dressing. Then drizzle the remaining dressing over top when ready to serve. This is because the pasta absorbs the dressing over time, and has the potential of drying up. We want to avoid that at all costs!

A spoon in a jar showing Italian dressing in it. Around the jar is a block of parmigiano reggiano cheese and fresh basil leaves, while everything is displayed on a wooden board.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make pasta salad in advance? You can! There are two ways to do this. 1) You can assemble the pasta with the vegetables and keep the dressing separate, then dress it when you’re ready to serve it (this is my personal preference). 2) Or you can make the salad 4 hours in advance and let 1/2 of the dressing and pasta salad marinate together, then top it off with the rest of the dressing when you’re ready to serve it. Keep it covered and chilled if you’re making it in advance.

Can I prep pasta salad the night before? Yes! I recommend keeping the cooked pasta, and all the prepped vegetables/meats/cheeses in chilled separate containers/bags. Then assemble the salad when ready to serve!

How long do leftovers last? This pasta salad is best kept refrigerated for up to 4-5 days. When reserving it, you can drizzle it with a little bit of olive oil to freshen up the dish.

What to Serve with Pasta Salad

This pasta salad is perfect for summer gatherings or barbecues! We love to serve it with…

Burgers & hot dogs: this pasta salad is made for summer barbecues that involve burgers and hot dogs. It’s the perfect side and adds the right touch of freshness!

Chicken: this pasta salad also goes great with chicken, whether that’s our grilled honey dijon chicken thighs, barbecue chicken, or our roasted lemon rosemary chicken!

Sides: some side dishes that go great alongside pasta salad are corn on the cob, potato salad, and/or barbecue beans!

More Italian Salads to Try

If you love this pasta salad, you might also be a fan of our Bowtie Pasta Salad with Parmesan Herb dressing. For Italian salads without any pasta, try our favorite Tuscan Artichoke Salad or Cannellini Bean Salad!

Italian Pasta Salad

This Italian pasta salad is the perfect side dish to compliment your favorite summer meal! Each bite is filled with juicy tomatoes, marinated artichokes, fresh herbs, salami, and parmesan-covered pasta noodles. It's bright and fresh in flavor and so easy to prepare!
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Serves 8

Ingredients

  • 1 lb dry fusilli pasta noodles
  • 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 15 oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained thoroughly
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
  • 1/2 cup marinated artichokes
  • 1/4 cup red onion, sliced or diced small
  • 1/2 cup black olive, sliced
  • 1/2 cup cheese cubes, either mozzarella balls, provolone cheese, or mild cheddar cheese
  • 1/2 cup salami chunks (for thinly sliced salami about 8 slices cut into pieces)
  • 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
  • 1 Italian Vinaigrette

Instructions

  • Cook the pasta: Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. When the water is boiling, carefully add the pasta noodles and stir together. Let the pasta cook until al dente in texture (use your pasta packaging for instructions). After the pasta has cooked, strain it and rinse with cold water.
  • Make the dressing: use either a blender or whisk the ingredients together using my Italian vinaigrette dressing recipe!
  • Assemble the salad: In a large mixing bowl, add the cooked pasta, all the toppings, and freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano. If ready to serve, drizzle the dressing over top and toss until everything is completely coated in dressing and cheese. Taste it, add additional salt & black pepper if needed, then enjoy!
  • If you're serving it later: I recommend coating only a 1/2 of the dressing with the salad and then letting it marinate if you're not serving it right away. Then add the remaining salad dressing when it's ready to be served! Otherwise, the pasta will soak up a lot of the dressing and it could result in a dry pasta salad. If the pasta salad is dry after all dressing is used, a little bit more olive oil and vinegar drizzled over the salad will bring it all back to life! Cheers.

Notes

Make it gluten-free. If you’d like this pasta to be gluten-free friendly you can use your favorite gluten-free pasta. We like jovial noodles!
Add different vegetables. To mix up the flavors, you can also add additional ingredients such as chickpeas or white beans, avocado, roasted red peppers, cucumber, fennel, watermelon radish, arugula, or Mediterranean olives.
Course Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine American, Italian
Keyword bowtie pasta salad, Italian pasta salad
Freezer Friendly No

Nutrition

Serving: 0.75cup | Calories: 427kcal | Carbohydrates: 52.4g | Protein: 15.6g | Fat: 17.6g | Saturated Fat: 3.6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11.1g | Trans Fat: 0g | Cholesterol: 7.9mg | Sodium: 596.4mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 7.6g | Vitamin A: 9IU | Vitamin C: 36mg

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