Italian Pasta Salad

March 31, 2022

This Tri-Color Pasta Salad with Italian Dressing is made with rotini, Italian dressing, pepperoni, black olives, and diced ham. It’s kid friendly and the variations are endless, plus it’s so easy to make! 

Italian Pasta Salad
Pasta Salad

Pasta salad makes the perfect summer side dish for BBQs, potlucks or picnics. It is super easy to make with just 4 ingredients and kids love it.


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This pasta salad is super easy to make, and kids love it. You can even customize this recipe to your liking by adding cucumbers, tomatoes, or olives. My kids love it just the way it is.

What is pasta Salad?

Pasta salad is a salad dish prepared with one or more types of pasta, almost always chilled, and most often tossed in a vinegar, oil, or mayonnaise-based dressing. It is typically served as an appetizer, side dish or a main course. Pasta salad is often regarded as a spring or summertime meal, but it can be served any time of year.

The ingredients used vary widely by region, restaurant, seasonal availability, and/or preference of the preparer. The salad can be as simple as cold macaroni mixed with mayonnaise (a macaroni salad), or as elaborate as several pastas tossed together with a vinaigrette and a variety of fresh, preserved or cooked ingredients.

Ingredients:

Pasta Salad variations

Pasta Salad has many variations. If you search the internet for Pasta Salad you are going to find hundreds of different recipes, because pasta salad has so many variations. This is my kid’s favorite pasta salad version, but there are so many out there it is hard to choose the perfect one.

What else can be added to Pasta salad:

Ingredients for Pasta Salad

Tips for cooking Pasta:

How to make pasta salad:

  1. Cook pasta as directed, making sure not to overcook.
  2. Drain pasta. Run pasta under cold water to cool.
  3. Add pasta, pepperoni, diced ham, and Italian dressing to large mixing bowl. Toss all ingredients together.
  4. Cover and refrigerate.

You may also like:

Creamy Cheesy Macaroni salad

potato salad

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Pasta Salad (Kid friendly)

This pasta salad is super easy to make with just 4 ingredients and kid friendly. Great to make on a busy weeknight. It can also be made ahead of time and refrigerated.

  • Prep Time: 17 minutes
  • Total Time: 17 minutes
  • Yield: 6 servings 1x
  • Category: Side Dish
  • Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale

Instructions

  1. Cook pasta as directed, making sure not to overcook.
  2. Drain pasta. Run pasta under cold water to cool.
  3. Add pasta, pepperoni, diced ham, and Italian dressing to large mixing bowl. Toss all ingredients together.
  4. Cover and refrigerate.

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3 responses to “Italian Pasta Salad”

  1. […] Pasta Salad (kid friendly) […]

  2. […] with Creamy instant mashed potatoes, rice, pasta salad or macaroni […]

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