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

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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! 

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

serves 8

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!

Notes

If your pasta salad looks a little dry when it comes out of the fridge, add a tablespoon of salad dressing and mix.

Course:Side Dish

Cuisine:American

Keyword:make ahead pasta salad, pasta salad recipe, rotini pasta, tri color pasta salad, tri color pasta salad with italian dressing

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