Zesty Italian Pasta Salad

I make this pasta salad on repeat, especially in the summer. It’s the perfect low-cook side to serve alongside something from the grill or with cold rotisserie chicken when I need things to be really easy and cool. I love that it’s loaded with veggies and flavorful bites of salami and mozzarella, making every bite interesting. It’s like my favorite antipasti but with pasta to make it more of a meal.

Ingredient Notes And Substitutions

This recipe is a great canvas for adding any veggies I have on hand, but here are the ingredients I typically use to make it.  

• Pasta – Most often I use fusilli or rotini pasta for this salad, but any small shaped favorite pasta will work, such as penne or farfalle. Or I’ve even used elbow pasta to make a macaroni salad. I recently discovered this high fiber high protein pasta that packs 8 naturally occurring grams of protein and 9 grams of fiber per ⅔ cup serving. 
• Salami – This deli meat is a favorite of mine and makes this salad feel so Italian, but other types of meat will work, too, such as sliced pepperoni, prosciutto, or capocollo, too. 
• Mozzarella pearls – These tender cheese balls are the perfect small size and shape for adding to this salad and scooping up with a fork. 
• Pepperoncini – I love the tang of these yellow-green pickled chile peppers that are common in Mediterranean cuisine. They add a nice tangy and briny balance to the richness of the salami and cheese. Sliced banana peppers also work great. 
• Veggies – Most often, I use diced yellow or red bell pepper, zucchini, tomatoes, and red onion.  
• Fresh herbs – Finally chopped fresh basil and fresh parsley add so much fragrance and fresh flavor to this salad, as well as a pop of green color. 
• Dressing ingredients – My zesty Italian dressing recipe is simple, made by whisking together extra-virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar (or red wine vinegar), Dijon mustard, lemon juice, and dried Italian seasoning or dried oregano, black pepper and kosher salt. No time to make homemade Italian dressing? Use a store-bought one to make weeknight meals even faster.  

Find the ingredient list with exact measurements in the recipe card below.

Cook The Pasta, Combine Everything Together, And Enjoy

One of the things I love most about this cold pasta salad is how quickly it comes together. While the pasta is cooking, I make the dressing and chop the veggies. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up after making it so many times. 

1. Cook the pasta: A few tips for making pasta that tastes great in this salad is to salt the water much more than you think you should. I used to only add a pinch of salt to the water, but now I add a teaspoon or more. It gives the pasta a great flavor. I also cook pasta for about 1 minute less than is suggested in the package instructions, so it still has a little bite to it (not too soft or mushy). I drain the pasta in a colander. Then I just give it a light rinse under running cold water to remove some of the starch. This is so the pasta pieces won’t stick together in the salad. 
2. Prep the dressing: While the pasta is cooking, I quickly add all the dressing ingredients to a small mason jar with a lid. Then I give it a quick shake and set it aside. 
3. Chop the veggies: I also chop and slice the veggies while the pasta is cooking, cutting the tomatoes in half, slicing and quartering the zucchini, dicing the bell pepper, and thinly slicing the red onion. I tear and chop the fresh herbs just before I add them to the salad. 
4. Toss it together: Once the pasta is mostly cooled, I add it to a large bowl. Then I add the chopped veggies, salami, cheese, and fresh herbs. I drizzle the salad dressing over top and give it all a quick toss to incorporate all the ingredients together. 

For serving size and the complete directions and ingredient amounts, scroll down to the recipe card below. All of our recipes include the nutrition analysis, listing calories (kcals), protein, carbohydrates/carb, fiber, sugar, sodium, cholesterol, and more per serving.

Make It Gluten-Free

All of the ingredients in this salad are naturally gluten free with the exception of the pasta. So to make it a gluten-free salad, use a gluten-free fusilli pasta and cook it according to package directions.  

What To Serve This Pasta Salad With

This pasta salad is one of my go-to summer side dishes to serve alongside anything I grill. It’s great with everything from turkey burger cookouts to pork tenderloin dinners. It’s also great alongside rotisserie chicken for a fast meal. And thanks to the addition of the salami, it also makes a pretty well rounded dish on its own. I package up the leftovers into individual meal prep containers to enjoy for lunch in the next few days. 

Storing Leftovers

If I’m making this recipe for a family get-together, BBQ, or potluck, I’ll prep a few things in advance. That way it can come together quickly the day I serve it. The dressing is a make-ahead component that I sometimes prep up to 1 week in advance. I store it in the fridge and then re-whisk before adding it to the salad. Also, the pasta can be cooked and chilled the day ahead. When I do those two things ahead of time, the rest of the salad comes together in about 10 minutes flat. 

If there are any leftovers of the fully mixed salad, I store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Then I simply give it a little toss to redistribute the dressing before I enjoy the leftovers, which are even better the next day, in my opinion.

Recipe changelog

• May 2026: We previously published a version of this recipe that had slightly different ingredient amounts and instructions. Download the previous version here.

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The photos in this post were taken by Kaitlin of Creating Kaitlin.

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