Create the best pasta salad from scratch with just a few ingredients and simple steps using this simple Pasta Salad recipe and enjoy a delicious twist on a Greek Pasta salad with fresh vegetables and al dente pasta.
This is not your normal Italian pasta salad or Greek salad. You get the best of both worlds with this great pasta salad since it combines creamy dressing, olives, and cubed cheese with the tender pasta rather than using an Italian dressing.
Cold pasta salads are always a hit for get-togethers or summer picnics since they are a great side dish to serve for any special occasion.
With this simple salad recipe, you can enjoy a little bit sweeter macaroni salad with fresh ingredients and fresh vegetables.
Recipe Ingredient Notes
To make our creamy pasta salad, you need the following ingredients:
- Pasta: use a box of uncooked ditalini pasta, (or whatever pasta you have)
- Vegetables: use fresh broccoli florets chopped, minced red onions, minced red bell pepper, and diced cucumber
- Olives: you can use a can of drained sliced olive
- Cheese: use cubed Colby Jack Cheese or your favorite flavor of cubed cheese
- Mayo: use your favorite brand of mayonnaise to create the creamy base of this easy pasta salad recipe
- Vinegar: use white wine vinegar in the dressing to balance the sweetness of the mayonnaise
- Sugar: white sugar helps add sweetness and thin the creamy dressing of this classic macaroni salad
- Seasoning: you can keep it simple by using just kosher salt and ground black pepper
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to Make Our Creamy Pasta Salad
- Cook pasta according to package directions for al dente. Rinse well with cold water until pasta is cold.
- Place cooked and cooled pasta in a large mixing or serving bowl.
- Mix in broccoli florets, red onion, red bell pepper, cucumber, sliced olives and cheese.
- Whisk together all dressing ingredients and pour over pasta and other ingredients.
- Gently fold in the dressing until all ingredients are evenly coated.
- Cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions about making homemade pasta salad:
When boiling the noodles, one way to add even more flavor to a pasta salad is to use a large pot of salted water.
The great thing about pasta salad is that you really can use any pasta shape you want. Here are some of our favorite pasta shapes:
Rotini pasta
Bow tie pasta
Elbow macaroni
To keep it simple, this recipe does not use fresh herbs as it is written. However, you can add some fresh parsley or fresh dill if you wish!
Our go-to choice for vinegar is white wine vinegar but you could also use red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar as well. You could also try using olive oil instead.
Recipe Notes
- Rinse your cooked pasta in a colander with cold water until the pasta is completely cold. This helps your pasta to not stick together because of the extra starches you are washing away.
- Be sure to cut your vegetables, especially red onion, very small (more of a mince than a dice) so they aren’t too overpowering in this Creamy Pasta Salad.
- I love using simple shortcuts when cooking. I used pre-sliced olives and Colby Jack cheese sticks that I then cut into cubes rather than buying an entire block of cheese.
- Customize the recipe with some of the following add-ins: cherry or grape tomatoes, green pepper, yellow mustard, beans (chickpeas or garbanzo beans), diced pickles, or pine nuts.
- Storage Suggestions: If you store your leftover creamy pasta salad in an airtight container, it will last in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.
Enjoy More Delicious Pasta Recipes
Want to add more veggies to your meals? Browse our comprehensive list of salad recipes.
- BBQ Macaroni Salad
- Cheesy Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad
- Copycat Hug-Hes Chicken Pasta Salad
- Cowboy Pasta Salad
- Creamy Macaroni Salad
- Deviled Egg Pasta Salad
- Greek Pasta Salad
Pasta Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 16 ounces ditalini pasta, (or whatever pasta you have on hand). 1 package
- 1 cup broccoli florets, chopped
- ½ red onion, minced
- 1 red bell pepper, minced
- 1 cucumber , diced
- 3.8 ounces sliced olives, 1 can, drained
- 1 cup Colby Jack Cheese, cubed
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package directions for al dente. Rinse well with cold water until pasta is cold.
- Place cooked and cooled pasta in a large mixing or serving bowl.
- Mix in broccoli florets, red onion, red bell pepper, cucumber, sliced olives and cheese.
- Whisk together all dressing ingredients and pour over pasta and other ingredients.
- Gently fold in dressing until all ingredients are evenly coated.
- Cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving.
Notes
- Rinse your cooked pasta in a colander with cold water until the pasta is completely cold. This helps your pasta to not stick together because of the extra starches you are washing away.
- Be sure to cut your vegetables, especially red onion, very small (more of a mince than a dice) so they aren’t too overpowering in this Creamy Pasta Salad.
- I love using simple shortcuts when cooking. I used pre-sliced olives and Colby Jack cheese sticks that I then cut into cubes rather than buying an entire block of cheese.
- Customize the recipe with some of the following add-ins: cherry or grape tomatoes, green pepper, yellow mustard, beans (chickpeas or garbanzo beans), diced pickles, or pine nuts.
- Storage Suggestions: If you store your leftover creamy pasta salad in an airtight container, it will last in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
Great way to get some yummy, crunchy veggies in everyone!
Ur best foods mayo. Looks a lot like a jar of hellmann’s mayonnaise. I have never seen it before, is it the same.
Any Mayo will be fine. We have even used store brands.
So I love this but I feel like the red onion flavor is over powering everything else 🙁 any idea on how to tame it?
I noticed that too when I moved from the west coast to the midwest. Best foods & Hellman’s are the same! Says so right on the jar 🙂
You have to eat it that day. I made this for an open house the evening prior. I served it less then 12 hours the following day and it was super dry. I whipped up another batch of the dressing and mixed it in. Still overwhelmingly dry. I think it’s one of those that has to be served after making it. It does say in the pin that she usually doesn’t save it, that it’s all gone. I should have picked a recipe that said it stored well for a make ahead event.
Do you add broccoli cooked or uncooked
Try using a sweet onion, such as a Vidalia, in place of the red onion. The flavor will be milder.
We add the broccoli uncooked.
Is the dressing sweet? I see the recipe has just a little sugar.
It’s not super sweet. But the tangy flavor of the mayo adds the perfect amount of sweetness.
I’ve always wondered why the red onion restaurants have on their salad bar doesn’t have that hot onion taste. The red onion I’d buy wasn’t nearly as good. I’m happy to share a tip I learned from someone on the Food Network. To take away that hot onion taste, all you have to do is soak the sliced red onion in cold water at least 30 minutes before serving or adding to your fresh salad. I normally let it soak a littler longer, up to an hour. Even though a red onion is called a sweet onion, it’s never been sweet to me, probably because I use the delicious sweet Vidalia onion. A tip I learned from my sister who lived in Georgia is, the flatter the onion, the sweeter it is. But a red onion does have that distinctive taste needed for many dishes. I keep both onions on hand.
Can you use something else besides white wine vinegar? I couldn’t find it in the store.
A rice vinegar or cider vinegar could be used. But add sparingly until you get a taste you like.
can you use plain white vinegar?
Start with 1 teaspoon and taste test it first. Then if you feel it needs more, add the 2nd teaspoon.
Very similar to a salad I concocted several years ago, but I include chopped celery and cooked chicken, using a 1 to 1 ratio of mayo and ranch dressing to finish it off. Easy-peasy, and everyone always wants the recipe.
Could you start including nutritional information with your recipes? If that is possible, I would be more interested in trying them!
I add feta cheese to this and it is amazing! I also use green onion instead of red.
Try soaking the onions in water a half hour or so before you use them, works on yellow onions too.
Very Tasty! I added bacon but otherwise followed the recipe exactly!
Could you use plain Greek yogurt instead of Mayo?
Yes, you could use Plain Greek Yogurt in place of the mayo, but it will change the taste a little.
I like making this on Sunday and having leftovers for an easylunch throughout the week!
Yes, they are the same. I thinks it’s called Hellmans in east coast, best foods on west coast.
Pasta always absorbs the dressing and one batch is definitely not enough. Going to make another batch and hope that doesn’t the trick.
We love this pasta salad. This is our favorite recipe and go to. I always take it to BBQ’s and I am asked for the recipe. I send them your way. I do leave out the olives and cut back a little on the red onion only because this is our preference. Thank you for all your wonderful recipes!
This salad is a favorite every time I make it. The pasta absorbs a lot of the sauce so I triple it and mix the last bit in right before serving so it’s creamy and delicious! Thank you for the recipe!
Took others advice and doubled the dressing. Also added extra tsp sugar. Definitely a keeper
Yum! I make this a lot! Everyone loves it!
The pasta will soak up a lot of the dressing; especially if made the day before.
After reading the comments about the salad being dry; I mix up the dressing ingredients; store in glass jar with tight fitting lid and just before serving I will pour the dressing over the pasta ingredients; mixing well and serve. Everything is cold and no dry pasta.
So scrumptious! It didn’t last 2 days. It’s haunting my thoughts, so I’m making it again. It hasn’t even been a week 😆
This was so good! I would def double the dressing though. Too dry for me. But it was great! I’ll make again.