Tri Color Pasta Salad with Italian Dressing is an incredibly fresh homemade cold pasta salad that makes every bite count. What I love about curly rotini pastas are the ability to get the noodles in a tri color.
The green and orange make a beautiful rainbow salad so it can look as appetizing on the table as it tastes!
You never know if your fork will grab onto the soft mozzarella cheeses or the crunchy and sweet red peppers or maybe even the crisp bite of broccoli- every bite a surprise and every bite the BEST.
Why you will love this Italian Pasta Salad
When you make pasta salads, they are certainly tons of choices for the pasta noodle. I have an affinity for the mini macaronis and the baby shells myself, but these rotini pastas are a nice thick noodle that can fill up just about anyone.
Even better when served cold! While you can serve this one immediately it tastes even better when left in the fridge for up to 4 hours or even overnight.
I personally am not a big “left over” gal, but I think 3 days is pretty solid on this salad.
Alright, this one is def not in the no carb keto family, but when you account for the amount of fresh veggies in it, its still an amazing alternative to cookies.
If you really want to curb the carbs, make sure you try this super fresh and low carb whole 30 alternative,
Italian dressing is super light and really helps enhance and make this pasta salad shine. It does not hide the vegetable and pasta flavors.
I always pick my favorites when it comes to making fresh Vegetable salads, but you can change this one up to your own homemade recipe by slicing and dicing your best veggies as well. You can also choose to add cooked meats like pepperoni and vary the cheeses.
Ingredients
- Rotini Pasta
- Italian Dressing
- Italian Seasonings Packet
- black olives
- diced red peppers
- Mozzarella Pearls
- broccoli
- red onion
- cucumber
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How to make Tri-Color Pasta Salad
- First cook your rotini pasta al dente. You can cook according to the box but it takes typically 7 minutes or so. Drain and set pasta aside.
- Chop all your veggies to bite sized pieces. Make sure you peel the cucumber before slicing down as well. Cut off any long broccoli stems and cut broccoli heads down if too large. You want to make sure that when you take a bite of the salad, everything can fit nicely on a fork in one bite.
- Drain your black olives.
- Dump all your ingredients on top of the tri color pasta.
- Now sprinkle your Italian Dressing packet over the top.
- Dump the entire Italian Dressing bottle into the pasta and vegetable mixture.
- Mix super well, making sure to saturate all the noodles and vegetables top to bottom.
- Store in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
Expert Notes
- Do not overcook your pasta – You can cook your pasta via the instructions on the box but do not overcook. Since you are adding Italian salad dressing and Italian Seasonings, your noodle is already going to get saturated. If you over cook your pasta, it might be too soft to really enjoy.
- Do not substitute your Mozzarella Pearls with Mozzarella Block Cheese – cheese matters! Make sure you use fresh mozzarella diced down or pre-sized Mozzarella Pearls. If you slice blocked cheese the density is totally different and it detracts from the taste and texture. I always say that cheese is one thing that is worth the splurge.
- Black Olives or Green Olives – these are totally different types of olive tastes, but I do love an olive in a salad so I would not wimp out on adding them unless you hate them. Personally I prefer a black olive nutty taste versus the sharp taste of a green olive. You can also lower the 12 oz. can to a 6 oz. can if you prefer.
- If you really wanted to, you can use the regular Rotini pastas, but I love the way the colored ones look myself.
- Add Cooked Shrimp for a totally delicious protein!
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Tri Color Pasta Salad with Italian Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 box tri color Curly Rotini Pasta - cooked and cooled
- 1 bottle 15 oz Italian Dressing
- Italian Seasonings Packet
- 12 oz black olives - can, drained
- 1/2 cup red peppers - diced
- 8 oz Mozzarella Pearls
- 1 small head of broccoli - chopped
- 1/2 cup red onion - diced
- 1/2-1 cup cucumber - peeled and chopped
Instructions
- First cook your rotini pasta al dente. You can cook according to the box but it takes typically 7 minutes or so. Drain and set pasta aside.
- Chop all your veggies to bite sized pieces. Make sure you peel the cucumber before slicing down as well. Cut off any long broccoli stems and cut broccoli heads down if too large. You want to make sure that when you take a bite of the salad, everything can fit nicely on a fork in one bite.
- Drain your black olives.
- Dump all your ingredients on top of the tri color pasta.
- Now sprinkle your Italian Dressing packet over the top.
- Dump the entire Italian Dressing bottle into the pasta and vegetable mixture.
- Mix super well, making sure to saturate all the noodles and vegetables top to bottom.
- Store in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
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