Three Perfect Pasta Salads

Pasta salads are that wonderful treat that can be easily made with ingredients you already have in your home. In fact it’s the perfect clean out the fridge type of meal. Almost every great backyard barbecue has a pasta salad on the table next to the burgers or steaks. And, when you add some protein it can be a full meal and not just a great side dish.

Vince & Joe’s has endless possibilities for you to create the best pasta salads. Our pasta isle has countless choices of pasta noodles but which noodles are the best in a pasta salad and what do you pair with your noodle? We chatted with our chefs and came up with three recommended pasta salad recipes to create this summer. We give you the pasta, the added ingredients and the dressing. And, you can mix and match if you want to. That’s what so great about a good pasta salad – almost anything goes! We also sell these at our gourmet counter if you’re not up for making your own.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

  • TRIED N TRUE
  • PASTA - The Fusilli - This corkscrew shape noodle comes from the Italian word fuss – meaning spindle. You could also use the tri-color noodle variety. Vince & Joe’s uses the Orecchiette noodle because it is more bite size
  • VEGETABLES - Think colorful. Pair your noodle with cherry tomatoes - cut in half, cucumber sliced and diced, red onion, Kalamata olives halved CHEESE - Crumbled or cubed feta works well or small mozzarella balls work great too
  • DRESSING - Homemade vinaigrette dressing
  • EXTRAS - salami slices; bacon; top with chopped parsley

  • ITALIAN FAVORITE
  • PASTA - Orzo Pasta noodle - This small noodle works great with bite size vegetables
  • VEGETABLES - We suggests the favorites like cherry tomatoes and cucumber, maybe some baby spinach and shredded carrots, sliced or diced red onion
  • CHEESE - Feta or mozzarella
  • DRESSING - Homemade vinaigrette dressing; or Pesto sauce
  • EXTRAS - Sun-dried tomatoes; pine nuts, Kalamata olives, arugula

  • VEGETARIAN SPAGHETTI SALAD
  • PASTA - Spaghetti noodles - break in half before boiling to help make them not so long and
  • stringy when eating
  • VEGETABLES - Chop and dice your veggies into smaller bites when pairing with the spaghetti noodle. Sliced cherry tomatoes, red and or green pepper, cucumber, yellow and zucchini squash, sweet onions, black olives
  • CHEESE - No cheese, option to top with cheese when served
  • DRESSING - Olive oil, garden seasoning blend
  • EXTRAS - Toasted sesame seeds, paprika

Directions

  1. Remember you can swap out many different vegetables customizing your salad to what you like. Always chill your pasta salad with the dressing to marinade it for at least an hour before serving and add more dressing when ready to serve. Additionally, shock your noodles in super cold water after boiling and par boil your vegetables then shock in cold water after boiling.