How To Make Pasta Salad > Start Cooking

Everyone loves pasta salad!

The great thing about pasta salad is that you can make it ahead of time and refrigerate it. Then when you get home in the evening your dinner is all ready!

Depending on what you have put in it, pasta salad will usually stay fresh in the refrigerator for about 2 days. Like any salad, add what YOU like and omit what you don’t!

I’ve already shown you how to cook pasta. For this dish, you really can use any shape pasta that you like. I think these bow ties (farfalle) are fun!

So let’s startcooking!

After you have cooked and drained 1 pound of pasta put it into a large mixing bowl.

Cut the rind off about 6 ounces of sliced hard salami, then cut the salami into thin strips. You might see these referred to as julienne strips, but that just means long thin strips like this.

Add the salami to the bow ties. (Wait until the end to mix everything together. Sometimes too much stirring turns a recipe to mush!)

Drain 1 small can of pitted olives and add them to the bow-tie pasta as well. You could use fresh pitted olives instead of the canned ones.

I love olives, but my husband hates them, so I usually skip putting the olives in this salad. It works just fine without them.

3 green onions, sometimes called scallions, need to be sliced.

Cut off the hairy root end, and trim the top as well. The green part has a milder taste than the white part. Cut the green onion into about ¼ inch thick slices…

…and add that to the pasta.

One pint of cherry tomatoes needs to get cut in half. Otherwise they always go flying across the plate when you try to stab them with your fork!

Now add 4-6 ounces of crumbled feta or goat cheese

GENTLY mix everything together. This salad is looking really good! When you are ready to serve this beautiful salad pour 8 ounces of Italian dressing over the pasta.

I like using a rubber spatula for this. You can also use a big spoon. If I had some fresh basil, that would be a nice addition to this salad.

Fresh Thyme, Rosemary and Basil

Mixing bowls are great for mixing things but not so great for serving. If you have a nice bowl be sure dig it out of the cupboard and use it. Also fresh parsley always makes a great garnish.