Italian Antipasto Pasta Salad. Tri color rotini pasta prepared al dente and mixed with oil, vinegar, red onion, fresh mozzarella, roasted red peppers, olives, and dried sweet Italian sausage.
Cookbook Feature Recipe: Rotini Pasta Salad Recipe
This week I want to highlight this Italian antipasto pasta salad recipe because it is one of the 80 recipes featured in the new cookbook! The cookbook is filled with NEW recipes, but I included one-or-two of my favorites recipes from the blog in the cookbook.
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This is the recipe everyone asks me to bring to parties! I receive a lot of compliments about this recipe and I am sure you will too.
Italian antipasto pasta salad is a perfect example of a recipe that you can “invent” and make your own. You can pretty much use whichever ingredients you like to make this cold antipasto salad.
Most of the comments I receive about this pasta salad are: this is so beautiful, I love all the colors and bits of cheese and meat, this looks so fancy it must be hard to make, or what kind of dressing is that I just love it!
The best part: The dish is really easy and straight-forward to make and you can use store bought Italian dressing to make things even easier. That is what I do most of the time.
Have fun making this Italian antipasto pasta salad. And let me know the compliments you receive on this dish in the comments below.
NOTE
Before beginning the recipe remember to read the “Invent Your Recipe” section below for additional suggestions, recipe combinations, or ingredient alternatives.
How to Make Italian Antipasto Pasta Salad
Preparing the Pasta:
- Prepare the pasta according to the package’s instructions for al dente pasta. Strain pasta and set aside for 10 minutes to cool.
Preparing the Salad:
- Once pasta has cooled, in a large mixing bowl combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly to incorporate.
How to Serve Italian Antipasto Pasta Salad
- Place the tri color pasta salad in a large serving bowl. For best results place the salad into the refrigerator for a least 4 hours before serving.
Invent Your Recipe:
I make this cold Italian Antipasto pasta salad often to bring to dinner parties. It can be served as an appetizer or as a side dish. The combination of ingredients for this recipe is basically endless. For instance, in place of the dried sweet Italian sausage you could substitute dried hot Italian sausage, dried sweet Soppressata, Genoa salami, or even pepperoni. If you use salami or pepperoni I would recommend getting the pieces sliced on the thicker side. With the dried sausage and soppressata they are sold in stick form, so you can control how thick to cut the pieces.
For the vegetables in this dish I have also used marinated mushrooms, marinated artichokes, broccoli, carrots, kalamata olives, green onions, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, and sun dried tomatoes. You can really mix and match just about any vegetable you like.
For cheese I find fresh mozzarella works the best, but I have also used sharp provolone and asiago cheese. If you try asiago cheese I would cut back on the amount you use. A little really does go a long way with asiago.
Try some of our other featured pasta dishes, and I hope this easy Italian antipasto pasta salad dish becomes a favorite of yours.
The Recipe
Italian Antipasto Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb. Tri Color Rotini
- ½ red onion sliced thin
- 1 jar 16 oz. roasted red pepper slices
- 1 can 6 oz. sliced black olives
- 16 oz. fresh mozzarella cut into ½ inch cubes
- 1 stick 7-8 oz. sweet dried Italian sausage cut into ½ inch cubes
- ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup of red wine vinegar
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- ½ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. black pepper
- ¼ tsp. garlic powder
Instructions
- Before beginning the recipe remember to read the “Invent Your Recipe” section below for additional suggestions, recipe combinations, or ingredient alternatives.
Preparing the Pasta:
- Prepare the pasta according to the package’s instructions for al dente pasta. Strain pasta and set aside for 10 minutes to cool.
Preparing the Salad:
- Once pasta has cooled, in a large mixing bowl combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly to incorporate.
To Serve:
- Place the tri color pasta salad in a large serving bowl. For best results place the salad into the refrigerator for a least 4 hours before serving.
Invent Your Recipe
Nutrition
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