Pasta Salad
Cold pasta salads that feed a crowd — Caesar, elote, BLT, Italian grinder, and tomato mozzarella — for potlucks, cookouts, and easy weeknight sides.
★ lunch
lunchCaesar Pasta Salad 🥗
I’m not a big fan of pasta salad on its own, but my husband loves pasta salad! What a better way to have the best of both the salad and pasta salad world and combine the two!
EmilyIngredients
- SALAD INGREDIENTS
- 2 heads Romaine lettuce
- 1-2 Cups Baby spinach
- 1 box Bow tie pasta
- 8oz Shredded Parmesan Cheese
- 1-2 cups Croutons
- As needed Caesar Dressing -homemade or store bought
- DRESSING INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup Mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup Sour cream (Or Plain Greek Yogurt)
- 2-3 tbsp Lemon Juice
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- To taste Salt
- To taste Pepper
- 2-3 Garlic Cloves
Instructions
- 1Start to boil water to cook your bow tie pasta.
- 2If you are planning to serve right away, next make your Caesar dressing by combining the ingredients above. Finely chop your garlic cloves, but you can also substitute with garlic powder. Set aside in the refrigerator.
- 3While your pasta is cooking, roughly chop your romaine lettuce and baby spinach.
- 4After your pasta is cooked, make sure to let the pasta cook for several minutes before combining ingredients.
- 5Next combine your Parmesan cheese, lettuces, and pasta.
- 6Next stir in your Caesar dressing and croutons. If you don’t plan to serve immediately wait to add your croutons and dressing right before serving to avoid your croutons getting soggy.
- 7Enjoy!
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Open in Pepper →The Bowl Everybody Goes Back To
Pasta salad is the dish you can make in the morning and forget about until supper. It holds up on a counter, travels in the back seat, and somehow tastes better after a few hours in the fridge.
Cooks on Pepper reach for these when there's a cookout Saturday, a church potluck Sunday, or a hot week when nobody wants the oven on.
Every recipe here is a real bowl someone brought home empty — Caesar Pasta Salad with romaine and baby spinach, Elote and Mexican Street Corn versions loaded with cotija and mayo, BLT Pasta Salad with bowties and bacon, Italian Grinder with salami and shredded cabbage, plus Bruschetta and Tomato Mozzarella with rotini.
Quick Tips
- 1
Salt the water hard
Use about 1 tablespoon of salt per 4 quarts of water. Cold pasta tastes flat otherwise, and dressing can't fix it later.
- 2
Cook it one minute short
Pull the rotini or bowties about 1 minute before the box says. It firms up as it chills and won't turn mushy overnight.
- 3
Rinse and dry the pasta
Rinse under cold water for 30 seconds to stop the cooking, then drain well so the dressing clings instead of pooling.
- 4
Dress it twice
Toss with half the dressing while the pasta is warm, then add the rest right before serving since pasta soaks it up in the fridge.
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