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Easy Italian Pasta Salad takes just minutes to make with spiral rotini pasta, cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, black olives, and feta cheese covered in Italian dressing. Such a quick, easy, and delicious pasta salad recipe.
If you’re look for an easy Italian pasta salad recipe then you found it!
I have found that the best way & easiest way to make pasta salads are with store-bought bottled salad dressing. It sounds crazy and I know some may totally disagree because it’s not “homemade” but I am telling you that it really does make pasta salad so easy to make and so flavorful.
Just look at this ranch pasta salad, which is one of the most popular recipes on the blog. Same idea as today’s but with bottled ranch dressing and shredded parmesan cheese.
This easy recipe for Italian pasta salad has spiral noodles, chopped cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, black olives, red onion, and feta cheese covered in Italian dressing. The flavors blend together so nicely!
HOW TO MAKE ITALIAN PASTA SALAD
Cook up a box of tricolor rotini pasta noodles according to the package directions. While the pasta is cooking, chop up a cucumber, red onion, and cut some grape tomatoes in half.
When the pasta is done transfer it to a colander (that’s sitting in the sink) and let it drain. Turn the faucet all the way to cold and let it run over the pasta for several minutes so the pasta can cool down. You don’t want to add hot pasta to the bowl!
It’s easy from here. Add all your ingredients into the mixing bowl and stir together. This easy Italian pasta salad is good served right away or let it refrigerate for a few hours before serving. Just be sure to give it a good stir and you may need to add a tablespoon or two of Italian dressing to moisten it back up again.
MY TIPS FOR MAKING EASY ITALIAN PASTA SALAD
- Be sure and salt the pasta water before adding the dry pasta
- Use an Italian dressing that you LOVE. I really like the Olive Garden Italian dressing so that is the one that I buy. There are so many options. Zesty Italian dressing, creamy Italian dressing, parmesan Italian dressing. Pick one you love or one that sounds yummy!
- It’s best to seed the cucumbers for this pasta salad. Peel the cucumber and then cut it in half vertically (so you end up with two thinner, longer pieces). Take a metal dinner spoon and scoop out the seeds and flesh. Then cut and dice the cucumber.
- Use grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. Either one will work great.
- Eat this pasta salad right away or let it sit in the fridge for a few hours. It’s best not to make pasta salad the day before, because pasta salad tends to dry out as it sits in the fridge for a long time. When you are ready to serve, or are eating leftovers, give the salad a good stir and add a tablespoon or two of the dressing to moisten it all back up again.
- The recipe calls for 3/4 cup Italian dressing but feel free to use more or less depending on preference.
TRY THESE OTHER EASY RECIPES FOR PASTA SALADS
- dill pickle pasta salad
- caesar pesto pasta salad
- easy greek pasta salad
- southwest pasta salad
- summer vegetable pasta salad
Easy Italian Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 box (12 oz) tricolor rotini pasta
- 1 cup chopped cucumber (peeled and seeded, about 1 cucumber)
- 1 cup halved cherry or grape tomates
- 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1 can (2.25 oz) sliced black olives drained
- 1/4 cup finely diced red onion
- 1/2 - 1 cup Italian salad dressing
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to box instructions. Remember to salt your pasta water with 1-2 teaspoons of salt. When pasta is done, drain it and run cold water over it so the noodles can cool.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooked and cooled pasta, cucumber, tomatoes, feta cheese, olives, and red onion. Pour Italian dressing over it and stir together. *Start with 1/2 cup Italian dressing and go from there. I put about 3/4 cup dressing on the salad and then reserve the rest to add to the salad before serving to moisten it back up.
- Can be eaten right away or refrigerated for a few hours before serving.* I like it cold so I refrigerate for 2-4 hours before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
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I also added frozen corn, sweet roasted peppers and a can of red beans.
Sounds amazing! Thanks so much for your comment.
I Omitted the olives since I don’t care for them. I added finely diced mini colored peppers and added about a half cup each each of tomatoes and mini cucumbers and little cubes of hard salami. I made this pasta salad to go along with steaks my husband grilled.
It was delicious.
Yummy! I love your changes. The salami sounds delicious.
This salad is on point! I followed the recipe and it turned out great! Took this to a family gathering and everyone loved it! I will definitely keep this in my favorites. Thank you!
I added lump crabmeat and shrimp chopped up and everyone wanted the recipe
Second meal I ever made by myself. I feel pleasantly full, and my family probably too!
This was such a simple and easy recipe. And wow, was it a hit for the Fourth of July. My sister, who turned 60 requested it for her party a week later. It’s now being requested that I make it for a graduation. Definitely a keeper!! Thank you for sharing the recipe
Loved this – as did everyone at the cookout. So quick and easy. I had to improvise a bit, as I didn’t have tri-color rotini or Feta on hand. Used elbow macaroni and freshly grated Parmesan and it was DELICIOUS! Can’t wait to make again. And again. And again.
I add salami and sharp white cheddar cheese instead of feta, marinated artichoke and pepperocini peppers
This was so good. We don’t like Feta Cheese. So I used Mozarella Cheese instead.
I added some diced extra sharp cheddar, diced red and green peppers and some chopped mushrooms and fresh garlic to it.
Hmmm…fresh garlic, eh? Might try that! Thanx!
I make this with Greek vinaigrette instead of Italian. It’s always a hit.
This is the best pasta salad recipe out there…It’s so customizable! I swapped the Feta for cubed Swiss (my daughter’s request) and also added cubed hard salami. The second time I made it I also added broccoli to the last 4 minutes of pasta cooking time & drained them together. The broccoli stayed bright green and was just-enough-tender and worked nicely with the other ingredients. Fabulous recipe. I keep coming back to your page again & again to get it. Thanks so much!
Thank you! So glad you love it and thanks for your comment and feedback. I appreciate it.
Thank you for giving me a simple easy recipe I can understand and use. I am not much of a cook, so this really helps me to try to learn. I have an Italian function to attend at my church and I’ve decided to take this pasta. So, I hope it goes well, but my reading the previous comments, I think it will turn out great!!
You’re welcome. That is my goal, is to make recipes easy for anyone to make. I hope it was a hit! Thanks for your comment. I appreciate it.
Excellent!
I make this recipe almost every 4th and whenever we do cookouts with a lot of people. Massive crowd pleaser! We’re big fans! Feeds a lot of people without a ton of work! My kind of recipe!
In the last month I’ve made this by request.6 times. Along the way I’ve added pepperoni, chunks of cheddar cheese, This last time I left the pepperoni out and added artichoke hearts.
This recipe is definitely a crowd pleaser.
Thank you for sharing.
I’ve never thought of adding artichoke hearts, I’m definitely going to have to try that. Thank you for your comment!
Great recipe and easy with Olive Garden Italian dressing. I didn’t add the cucumbers, and added scallions instead of sweet onions. Everyone loved it and I will make it again.
Love the Olive Garden dressing! Thank you for your comment!
Have you tried sun dried tomatoes in oil, to your salad?
That sounds delicious! If you do add them, I would suggest starting with less Italian dressing in the beginning to make up for the added oil. Then add more if you would like.
When in season, VIDALIA SWEET ONIONS! Sooo delicious as freshly diced or sauteed. Cheese…mozzarella or, Parmesan mixed in. Olive Garden Italian dressing works very very well! Pasta..Barilla is very tasty all by itself, but it compliments all other flavors in a pasta salad.
Thanks for sharing!
I love this salad. I use mozzarella pearls instead of feta. I add artichoke hearts and extra olives. I also like to use an English cucumber. My family goes crazy over it. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Love the idea of artichokes! Thank you for sharing your tips and tweaks. So glad your family likes it 😊
Delicious and enjoy by all. I used half cup dressing and prior to serving added some more, which worked out well. I definitely will be making this recipe again.
I love the idea of adding dressing right before serving! Thanks for commenting!
Delicious pasta salad! Made it today because it’s been so hot lately. I didn’t have any cucumbers so I just added a bit more red onion, I also added mozzarella pearls and salami. Definitely a hit, thanks for sharing your recipe!
Thanks for sharing how you made the recipe your own! Glad you liked it!
HOW MANY SERVINGS DOES THIS MAKE?
It makes 10 servings.
Delightful!
Thank you! 😁
I’m not a pasta salad fan but this is delicious! I’ve made it many times now. I use the same basic ingredients but I combine them with my heart (sometimes more of this and less of that, whatever looks right to me). I also add lightly cooked broccoli and WAY more feta because I’m addicted to it.
Same! I love the feta in this salad 🙂