This is a great salad to bring out for a crowd in the summer. It comes together relatively quickly, tastes amazing, and well, feeds a crowd! I made this for dinner on Friday and we've been eating the leftovers for four days now.
Most of the pasta salads that I have tried have a mayonnaise based dressing making them somewhat iffy for a summer dish - especially if you want to bring it to an outdoor gathering. This would be a perfect salad to bring to the next BBQ you're invited to - now that people are finally inviting one another to BBQs and stuff.
This is one of those forgiving recipes. I had two types of olives in the refrigerator so I threw both in. You could add some sun dried tomatoes. I'm regretting not adding some diced zucchini (since the garden plot is giving me lots of them!). You get the picture.
You might want to consider doubling the dressing. It really tastes great and there are plenty of other uses I can think of for it.
Enjoy!
Italian Pasta Salad with Homemade Italian Dressing
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp sugar
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp each dried basil and oregano
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes (red pepper flakes) (optional)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
300g spiral pasta, or other pasta of choice (I used large shells)
180g/6oz thick sliced salami, cut into 2.5cm/1" batons (I use spicy salami)
200g baby bocconcini, halved
1 red pepper, cut into 3cm/2.2cm strips (note - this salad would be good with roasted red pepper as well)
250g whole olives
2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup (tightly packed) fresh basil leaves
Place Dressing ingredients in a jar and shake well.
Cook pasta according to packet directions minus 1 minute. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water to stop it cooking further. Shake excess water off well then transfer into large bowl.
Place remaining Pasta Salad ingredients in the bowl. Drizzle over Dressing and toss. Serve at room temperature.
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