Easy Pasta Salad
Here’s my easy pasta salad recipe that I came up with in my youth. This pasta salad tastes great the next day cold, perfect on a warm summer day!
Every now and then I like to break out the pasta bowl and make a big bowl of Pasta Salad for the family. It’s an easy way to get a giant bowl of something everyone will eat. Filled with enough vegetables to keep everyone healthy, I think it’s a great way to get everyone to eat salad.
Typically, I like to make this meal in the summer, but I just made this last week and it tasted as good in the winter as it does any other time of the year. Throw in a little home made Italian dressing and you have yourself a home run for the family.
My son Michael absolutely loves this dish because he says it’s perfect for “carbing up” before a big workout. The way he describes it is that the day before he eats a bunch of pasta salad and has a much better workout the next day.
My husband Mark loves this dish as well because he loves the taste of Italian salad dressing mixed with the onions and tomatoes. He says there’s just something about coming out into the kitchen for lunch on a warm summer day and reaching into the fridge for some cold pasta salad.
I’ve never heard any complaints about this dish, even from my other son Sean who doesn’t like tomatoes. The fact is that the bowl of pasta salad goes very fast and within a day it’s gone.
I think that speaks for itself!
Ingredients:
One small onion diced (1/2 if large onion)
I like red or vidalia
One small green pepper diced
One half english cucumber quartered pieces
or one whole kirby cucumber halved pieces
about 15 grape or cherry tomatoes halved
lb box of rotelle or fusilli pasta
your favorite italian salad dressing
Instructions:
Put diced onion, pepper, cucumber, tomatoes in large mixing bowl and mix with three tablespoons of the italian dressing.
Put in refrigerator while you cook the pasta.
In a dutch oven or large pasta pot cook pasta in boiled salted water according to directions.
Strain and pour some cold water over pasta in colander.
Allow to cool down.
Add cooled pasta to vegetables and gently mix. Add some italian dressing. Go lightly here. I like to lightly dress the salad and have some extra on table if someone wants more.
Let the salad completely cool in the fridge for a couple of hours.
This should give you a big bowl of pasta that will feed your family of 4 or give you multiple bowls of pasta for the next couple of days. One thing to consider is that it usually tastes better the next day. This is because when it sits in the fridge over night, the pasta really gets to a cool temperature as opposed to when the pasta is still slightly warm.
Enjoy!
-Fluffy
Easy Pasta Salad
Description
Every now and then I like to break out the pasta bowl and make a big bowl of Pasta Salad for the family. It’s an easy way to get a giant bowl of something everyone will eat. Filled with enough vegetables to keep everyone healthy, I think it’s a great way to get everyone to eat salad.
Typically, I like to make this meal in the summer, but I just made this last week and it tasted as good in the winter as it does any other time of the year. Throw in a little home made Italian dressing and you have yourself a home run for the family.
My son Michael absolutely loves this dish because he says it’s perfect for “carbing up” before a big workout. The way he describes it is that the day before he eats a bunch of pasta salad and has a much better workout the next day.
My husband Mark loves this dish as well because he loves the taste of Italian salad dressing mixed with the onions and tomatoes. He says there’s just something about coming out into the kitchen for lunch on a warm summer day and reaching into the fridge for some cold pasta salad.
I’ve never heard any complaints about this dish, even from my other son Sean who doesn’t like tomatoes. The fact is that the bowl of pasta salad goes very fast and within a day it’s gone.
Ingredients
- One small onion diced (1/2 if large onion)
I like red or vidalia - One small green pepper diced
- One half english cucumber quartered pieces
or one whole kirby cucumber halved pieces - about 15 grape or cherry tomatoes halved
- lb box of rotelle or fusilli pasta
- your favorite italian salad dressing
Instructions
- Put diced onion, pepper, cucumber, tomatoes in large mixing bowl and mix with three tablespoons of the italian dressing.
Put in refrigerator while you cook the pasta. - In a dutch oven or large pasta pot cook pasta in boiled salted water according to directions.
Strain and pour some cold water over pasta in colander.
Allow to cool down. - Add cooled pasta to vegetables and gently mix. Add some italian dressing. Go lightly here. I like to lightly dress the salad and have some extra on table if someone wants more.
Let the salad completely cool in the fridge for a couple of hours.
