Tri Color Pasta Salad
Easy recipe for the best tri color pasta salad! This is the perfect Summer time salad that uses Italian dressing, fresh vegetables and rotini pasta!
Tri Color Pasta Salad
The great thing about pasta salad is once you have the basics of pasta, salad dressing, herbs – the vegetables are really up to you. There needs some type of tomatoes (I prefer halved grape tomatoes). There needs to be celery chopped up. What else? Well that’s up to you. You can add carrots. You can add onions. You can add broccoli. You can add chopped up cauliflower. You can can add black olives (yum!).
Tri color pasta salad with Italian dressing
Mushrooms are always a hit too, especially when they get marinated by the salad dressing. Peas, corn, sundried tomatoes, chopped up kale – throw in whatever you like. To finish it all, you need some type of cheese to sprinkle all over, I like to add some shredded mozzarella. How do you like your pasta salad?
Tri color rotini pasta salad
You can make your pasta salad with a wide variety of noodles, so use what you like. I’ve been making our pasta salad with tri color rotini pasta. The extra color kick of this pasta makes it special in my opinion. Bow ties and penne pasta are great too!
Make Ahead Pasta Salad
Finally, pasta salad is a favorite because you can make it advance. You want it chilled, so all the pasta and vegetables pick up that salad dressing taste. Plus when it’s a hot summer day, a little chilled pasta salad will bring your spirits up. You can make this a few hours in advance, or even the day before. If I have leftovers, I will eat it for a few days after. The celery stays crunchy, I love that.
So go ahead, let’s make it feel like summer and make some tri color pasta salad.
Tri color pasta salad recipe
Pretty vegetables. I love black olives, but Matthew hates them. When he eats pasta salad, it’s just a bowl left of black olives. Then I steal his bowl and eat them all.
Tri color pasta – it’s a beauty, isn’t it?
This serves up a big fresh bowl of pasta salad.
Enjoy this tri color pasta salad!
Make sure to try my Italian Pasta salad recipe and Rainbow Kale Salad too!
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Tri Color Pasta Salad
Easy recipe for the best tri color pasta salad! This is the perfect Summer time salad that uses Italian dressing, fresh vegetables and rotini pasta!
Ingredients
- 12 oz box of tri color rotini pasta
- 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
- 3 stalks of celery chopped up
- 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes halved
- 1/2 cup sliced black olives
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
Instructions
- Prepare your pasta as directed. Drain.
- Put your pasta in a big bowl.
- Add your chopped vegetables, salad dressing and dried herbs.
- Mix together so everything is coated in salad dressing.
- Add in your mozzarella cheese, toss around.
- Cover, put in fridge to chill.
- Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
If your pasta salad looks a little dry when it comes out of the fridge, add a tablespoon of salad dressing and mix.
Pasta salad is my favorite summer dinner! Your photos are absolutely gorgeous!
Thanks Dorothy! I love it too!
It is the same weather over here, in Mechelen, Belgium! 🙁
I love making easy yet tasty pasta salads like this one, on weekdays, with whatever is lying in the fridge & pantry. We make a similar recipe like this when it is BBQ time over here! Yours looks very appetizing too!
I prefer to use fresh Buffalo mozerella for added creaminess & flavour! 😉
MMMMM – that sounds delicious!
Your pasta salad looks totally delicious, I love that it has mozzarella and black olives in too. I always end up eating other people’s left over olives as well, they definitely seem to be a love or hate food and I fall into the love category!
Hahaha, I know the feeling. Bring all the leftover olives to me! 🙂
Pasta salad reminds me of vet school! My roommate and I would always make a tortellini pasta salad the night before a big test – we called it our ‘good luck tortellini salad.’ 🙂
I would totally set weather alerts if the weather in Arizona actually changed often enough. I’ll send some warmth and sunny thoughts your way!
I love that, hope it brought you both good luck! Thanks for the sunny thoughts! 🙂
It looks wonderful! I may have to make this for lunch with my leftover pasta.
That would be a yummy lunch!
What a pretty pasta salad! And packed with flavors too I imagine. Great dish for those nights when you don’t want to put too much heat in the house. Lovely post Pamela.
Thanks Anne! It’s such a easy meal for a large group of people and packs such a delicious punch!
Blimey I forgot how great pasta salad is. I like it with all the above and some sweetcorn kernels too. Raining here too by the way..
Oh my, love the crunch of the kernels. What a great idea, thanks!
Looks delicious. The weather here is dull to. I would love some of this comforting food! 🙂
It went from dull to too hot… this still makes a great food for those sunny summer afternoons!
I JUST made pasta salad last night, but it’s all gone now, and this post has me wanting MORE!!! Looks so fresh and tasty.
MMMM, I think I will be making more this weekend!
I love pasta salad! It’s always felt like a special occasion food to me. Even though it’s super simple to make, it wasn’t in my mom’s recipe rotation when I was growing up. The only time I had pasta salad as a child was at someone else’s house (ie, barbeques, etc), so I thought of it as a treat.
That’s a great special way to think of it! It brings back alot of family memories for me at summer gatherings.
I love pasta salads–they are easy to make and such a great option for busy days or to bring to a picnic! Love it!
Love how quick and easy it is to make!
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[…] think about it spicy food will cause you to sweat which will cool down your body. Eat light foods, cold salads, fruits and plenty of cold snacks (pickles anyone?). Also I recommend a piece of cold fudge […]
[…] totally love if you make homemade pasta salads and homemade tortilla chips for your picnic, but I have a easier way for you incase you need […]
Just wanted you to know that I linked your delicious pasta recipe to my latest blog post on “The Perfect Picnic” http://thefrenchtouch-m-t.blogspot.com/2014/06/my-perfect-picnic.html
Can’t wait to try the recipe.
Cheers, M-T
Thanks so much M-T!
[…] Director Veronica Utz My favorite barbecue dish is this pasta salad. It’s always a big hit with kids, and I can premake it and use whatever crunchy veggies in […]
Just made this for lunch, so yummy!
High 5 Rachel!
[…] believe it had been two years since I last made it, so it took quite a bit of searching to find the original recipe I altered. This one is great for summer parties and when it’s just too hot to mess with the […]
[…] think about it spicy food will cause you to sweat which will cool down your body. Eat light foods, cold salads, fruits and plenty of cold snacks (pickles anyone?). Also I recommend a piece of cold fudge […]