If you're feeding a crowd, there's nothing better than a big bowl of pasta salad. Whether it's for a summer cookout, a holiday buffet, or an anytime accompaniment to a sandwich, pasta salad works and always wins. Our pasta salad recipes can be made well in advance—and toted to a potluck or picnic—and are perfect for big-batch cooking throughout the week.
A chilled pasta salad holds up remarkably well in the fridge, too: You can make a big batch of noodles and mix in fresh vegetables without dressing the salad first. The beauty of a pasta salad is that you can edit and tweak the formula any way you wish—choose your favorite noodle, a blend of vegetables, a sprinkle of protein if need be, and sauce or dressing when you're ready to serve.
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Spaghetti Salad
Here's a colorful and different pasta salad. While we generally recommend a short pasta for this dish, we also love this rendition, complete with long, skinny strands of pasta. It's chock full of bell peppers, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, olives, and feta.
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Pasta Salad with Chickpeas, Green Beans, and Basil
If you're a fan of mayo-based pasta salad, we have you covered. This hearty, delicious vegetarian pasta salad has it all: There's crunch from the green beans and protein from the chickpeas, while red onion adds a bite and fresh basil brings a wonderful aroma and herbal freshness.
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Pasta Salad with Tomatoes, Mozzarella, and Chickpeas
Our summer go-to, this vegetarian pasta salad is protein packed thanks to the mozzarella and chickpeas. It's also mayo-free—a lemony-garlic-oregano dressing brings plenty of punchy flavor.
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Orecchiette, Celery, and Olive Salad with Ricotta Salata
Orecchiette are "little ears," but in this recipe, the pasta serves as little bowls for salty, soft cheese, crunchy celery, and briny olives.
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Pasta Salad with Goat Cheese and Arugula
Gemelli pasta is combined with cannellini beans, goat cheese, arugula, and a touch of Dijon mustard for a satisfying and flavor-packed pasta salad.
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Eggplant Salad with Israeli Couscous and Basil
Tender Israeli couscous is united with sautéed eggplant and shallots, then finished with fresh basil. This flavorful salad can be on the table in 25 minutes.
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Tuna Macaroni Salad
A deli crowd-pleaser since the '70s, tuna macaroni salad is a versatile side dish or a simple lunch. Our version amps up the flavors with jalapeño and tangy buttermilk and keeps well in the refrigerator, ready to satisfy when hunger strikes.
Citrusy and cilantro-packed, this pasta salad pairs well with grilled chicken or tuna. And if you don't have cilantro, try it with mint, parsley, or a combination of fine herbs.
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Antipasti Pasta Salad
This pasta salad features the flavors of a traditional Italian antipasti platter, mixed with spiral-shaped pasta. Salami, mozzarella cheese, green olives, and jarred red peppers are called for, but feel free to add or substitute other ingredients, such as tuna, provolone, anchovies, artichoke hearts, capers, or marinated mushrooms.
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Marinated-Artichoke and Green-Bean Pasta Salad
For a fresh, light pasta salad, skip the mayonnaise and dress it with rich olive oil, artichoke brine, and lemon juice, instead. You can make the pasta salad up to four hours in advance and eat it chilled or at room temperature.
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Emeril's Macaroni Salad
This elbow macaroni salad has everything: It gets its richness from crisp-cooked prosciutto and crumbled goat cheese while olives, capers, tomatoes, fresh parsley, and a mustard vinaigrette punch up the flavor. The assembled salad can be stored and refrigerated for up to one day.
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Pasta Salad with Slow-Roasted Tomatoes and Basil
Just right for potlucks or picnics, this easygoing recipe can be served hot or at room temperature (and it travels well). Make the slow-roasted tomatoes head of time and the dish comes together in just 20 minutes.
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Three-Bean Pasta Salad
A favorite for picnics since it's easy to transfer, this pasta salad is a satisfying choice for any meal thanks to canned pinto beans and chickpeas; the green beans bring crunch and color. You can use any small shell pasta for this recipe.
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Pasta, Arugula, and Mozzarella Salad
A lemon juice-olive oil dressing makes this pasta salad sing. It's a side that can also be a main, as there's mozzarella for protein, baby arugula for the vegetable contingent, and short pasta such as campanelle for heft.
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Tortellini Salad
Here's another make-ahead pasta salad recipe. You can refrigerate this dish for up to a day for optimal freshness. Hold off on tossing in the prosciutto crisps and arugula until just before serving to keep them crisp.
The best part about pasta salad is it is best to make it in advance! Let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, 24 hours is recommended. Letting it rest in the fridge allows the flavors to marry together.
Some vegetables will keep longer than others, but those with a high water content will degrade faster. Things like fresh lettuce or cherry tomatoes will release water into the salad and make your delicious pasta salad become soggy. For the most part, pasta salad will last between 4 to 7 days if you store it correctly.
Drain the pasta and rinse it with warm water, not cold, then shake the pasta to drain it well. While it's still warm, not hot, dress the pasta with half of the dressing, then stir in the remaining just before serving.
If you're making a dish that will be served chilled or at room temp—think cold soba, rice noodles, pasta salad—you do want to rinse so that you get toothsome (sorry) individual strands rather than one big gummy clump. Certain types of noodles benefit from a rinse in almost all applications.
When you're making cold pasta salads, it's helpful to rinse your cooked pasta because it's going to lower the temperature of the pasta, which is ideal given that it's going to be served chilled — often alongside other cool and/or raw ingredients.
Do not rinse the pasta, though. The starch in the water is what helps the sauce adhere to your pasta. Rinsing pasta will cool it and prevent absorption of your sauce. The only time you should ever rinse your pasta is when you are going to use it in a cold dish like a pasta salad.
Vinegar and other acidic ingredients do strange things to the flavor of pasta when used in salad-level amounts. Ever notice an irritating acerbic aftertaste just about every time you've eaten pasta salad? That's the vinegar announcing itself, and it's not pleasant.
An important thing to remember about pasta is that it hardens and gets chewy as it cools. Since it's not being served hot or with sauce, the pasta benefits from an extra minute of cooking, but don't let it get mushy.
But how long, exactly, is that pasta salad going to last? The majority of pasta salads will last between three to five days in the refrigerator. This is provided you are storing the salad properly, in an airtight container so as to prevent any harmful bacteria from growing in your salad.
Texture: When pasta is freshly cooked, it can be slightly firm or chewy. Leftover pasta has had more time to absorb moisture from the sauce, resulting in a softer and more tender texture. Time to settle: Leftover pasta has had time to settle, which can help the flavors meld together and create a more cohesive dish.
Pasta salads made from thin, oil-based dressing, such as most Mediterranean pasta salads, will hold up okay in the freezer. Pasta salad made with a creamy or mayonnaise-based dressing, however, won't freeze nearly as well. The texture and taste of mayo or dairy-based dressings will change after they thaw.
The best olive oil for salads is the extra virgin olive oil. It is the olive oil with most flavored and fruity of all of them. But of course, there are many varieties of extra virgin olive oils, each of which have their own characteristics.
Be sure to use enough mayonnaise or dressing to thoroughly coat the noodles. It's going to look like too much when you first make it, but the pasta does absorb some of it as it chills. If your leftovers seem a bit dry after a day or two, simply stir in a little more dressing or mayo to liven them back up!
But today, I am going to teach you how to make a salad without using a recipe so you, too, can become a salad artist. Sound like a deal? There are five elements to a perfect salad: greens, sweetness, creaminess, crunchiness, and dressing.
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