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Homemade pasta salad in a ceramic bowl with rotini pasta, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, olives, and feta cheese on a light kitchen counter
Elise Rae Griffith

Simple Pasta Salad

A simple pasta salad made with whatever you have on hand. Easy to throw together, better after a few hours in the fridge, and good straight from the bowl.
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Course: Salad, Side Dish
Cuisine: Italian
Calories: 320
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 box pasta rotini or penne, whatever’s around
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved, or not, your call
  • 1 bell pepper red or yellow, chopped
  • 1 cucumber optional, adds crunch
  • 2 tbsp red onion thinly sliced, more if you like onion
  • 1/3 cup Italian dressing start light, add more later
  • 1/4 cup black olives sliced, optional
  • 1/2 cup feta or mozzarella cubes or crumbled
  • to taste salt don’t skip it
  • to taste black pepper optional
  • pinch dried oregano
  • small handful parsley just for looks

Equipment

  • 1 Large pot for boiling the pasta
  • 1 Large mixing bowl everything ends up in here anyway
  • 1 Colander to drain the pasta, unless you’re improvising

Method
 

  1. Boil the pasta in salted water until it’s done. However long the box says. When it’s ready, drain it. Rinse it if you want it cold faster. I do.
  2. While the pasta cooks, chop whatever vegetables you’re using. Tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, onion. Nothing has to be perfect. Throw everything into a big bowl.
  3. Add the cooked pasta to the bowl with the vegetables. Pour in some of the dressing. Not all of it. Stir it around and see how it looks.
  4. Taste it. Add salt and pepper if it feels flat. Maybe a pinch of oregano if you remember.
  5. You can eat it right away. Or cover it and put it in the fridge for a bit. It gets better after some time sitting.
  6. Before serving, give it another stir. Add more dressing if it looks dry. Eat it straight from the bowl or pretend you plated it nicely.

Notes

This pasta salad gets better if you leave it alone for a bit. Even thirty minutes helps. A few hours is better.
If it looks dry after chilling, just add a splash more dressing and stir it again. Pasta does that thing where it soaks everything up.
You can eat it right away, but it’s better cold. Or room temp. Or straight from the container. I’ve done all three.
Use whatever vegetables you have. This isn’t a precise recipe and it doesn’t need to be.
Salt matters here. Don’t skip it. Pasta salad without enough salt tastes unfinished.
Calories will vary depending on the pasta, dressing, and how generous you are with the cheese.