This quick Italian pasta salad makes a great meal for lunch or dinner. You can make this pasta salad with ham ahead of time and serve at a picnic or family gathering.
There are zillions of pasta salad recipes at your disposal. It’s kind of like meatloaf, everyone makes it different. This particular recipe, which you can throw together in no time at all, is a classic… fit for any type of gathering or a simple family dinner. Many pasta salad lovers prefer to prepare their favourite recipe a day ahead of time and let the flavours “marry” in the refrigerator. Of course, it’s totally up to you!
Italian Pasta Salad Dressing
Let’s talk pasta salad Italian dressing for a minute. If you’ve never tried zesty Italian salad dressing in your pasta, I highly recommend it. It gives everything a little extra zip of flavour that I’m sure your taste buds will appreciate.
Quick Pasta Salad Tips
1. If chopping onions makes you cry, try this. Cut a peeled the onion in half and run each piece under cold water for approximately 30 seconds. I can almost guarantee no more tears!
2. Pasta salad ingredient options are almost endless. Possibilities include green olives, raw broccoli, pepperoni, banana peppers, your favourite cheese… honestly; the list goes on and on.
3. If you do add extra ingredients, you’ll probably need to add more Italian dressing to ensure the entire salad is completely coated in yummy goodness. There’s nothing worse than dry pasta!
4. Italian pasta salad with spaghetti: Always make sure to rinse your spaghetti thoroughly in cold water before you start making the salad. Avoiding this step means you’ll end up with gummy, starchy noodles and you certainly don’t want that. While we’re on the subject, the simplest way to tell whether or not your pasta is cooked properly is to eat a couple of pieces and go from there.
5. Obviously, if you don’t want to take a trip to the store for cherry tomatoes, any ripe tomatoes will do the trick. Dice them as small or as large as you wish. Easy-peasy!
What goes with a pasta salad
If you are looking for side dishes to serve with your pasta salad, you can try:
- Cheesy Garlic Bread Loaf Recipe
- How to Make Crostini
- Easy Bruschetta Recipe
- Garlic Rosemary Herb Focaccia
- Italian Pizza Bites
Italian Pasta Salad Recipe
Ingredients for Italian Pasta Salad
- 1 box of spaghetti noodles, cooked
- 1 cup of chopped honey ham lunch meat
- 1 cup of Italian dressing
- 1/2 cup of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 1 can of whole black olives
- 8 ounces small fresh mozzarella balls (ciliegine)
How to Make Pasta Salad
- Following the directions on the back of the spaghetti box, cook pasta, drain and cool
- In a large bowl, combine pasta, chopped ham, cherry tomatoes, onion, black olives and Italian dressing
- Serve cold and enjoy
I hope you enjoyed this quick Italian pasta salad recipe as much as I did! If you make it, please share your photos with us on Facebook or Twitter! Also, check out all of our other recipes!
Quick Italian Pasta Salad Recipe
Equipment
- Pot
- Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 box spaghetti noodles cooked
- 1 cup of chopped honey ham lunch meat
- 1 cup of Italian dressing
- 1/2 cup of cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 1 can whole black olives
- 8 oz small fresh mozzarella balls (ciliegine)
Instructions
- Following the directions on the back of the spaghetti box, cook pasta, drain and cool
- In a large bowl, combine pasta, chopped ham, cherry tomatoes, onion, black olives and Italian dressing
- Serve cold and enjoy
Pasta salads are one of my favorite foods on the planet. This one sounds particularly delicious.
It is! Give it a try!
ooo that looks delicious!! a different way to have a salad. I am a big pasta fan so definitely wanna give this a try
Let me know how you like it!
This recipe looks sooo good! Pasta salad is one of my favourites.
Us too! Let me know if you like it if you make it!
This would be perfect for summer parties. I would love to use green olives too.
Thanks Love olives in a salad
This makes me remember a family pasta salad. With chunks of meat and cheese, Always cubed small. It was always pretty and popular.
This pasta salad looks so good I have not yet used the spaghetti noodles in a salad I will try this out next time I make a pasta salad
Let me know if you like it!
Looks really good, I love to put black olives in all my salads.
My oh my! This looks and sounds scrumptiously delicious!
I love pasta salads and will enjoy trying this delicious recipe. Thank you.
Let me know if you like it!
Looks great and no long list, will try this
I like everything but the black olives