No matter how hot it is outside, the thing to do during the summer is light the pit and enjoy some good ole BBQ! But a good BBQ cookout is only as good as it’s amazing side dishes! And while we all love our potato salads and baked beans, my favorite side is a cold pasta salad! It’s light and refreshing when paired with heavy meats like ribs and roast!
By a show of hands, how many of us love our veggies!! ✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼 Any chance I get to load up a dish with them, I’m taking it! So if you look at this and think there’s just too many things in it, just leave some out, it’s still going to be good. And of course, feel free to play around with the ingredients and change them up.
When you go to pick out the pasta you want to use, just make sure it’s something that can fit on the fork along with other items. You don’t want to grab just pasta, not be able to get anything else on your fork and then be left with just veggies at the end. So keep that in mind when choosing the noodle.
To make this an even faster and easier side to make, go ahead and cook your pasta before you do anything else. In fact, all of this can be done and prepped a day before you plan on serving it. Cooking the pasta first, it gives it the chance to cool off before combining all the ingredients.
So, boil the pasta in well salted water according to box instructions. Drain and rinse your pasta in cold water and set aside. There’s no need to worry about it drying out while you wait to combine everything because the dressing is going to take care of that. If you choose to prep this a day ahead, just place in an airtight container and cover with a damp paper towel in the fridge.
Next you want to cut up everything. Be conscious of the size you cut things, this is important to make it an enjoyable eat.
So colorful!!! 
Ham is really only one option you have!
How inviting is all the color of these ingredients??? Color is flavor! Have fun with it! I used ham because I had it on hand. This dish is a fantastic way to utilize leftover baked ham or you can go get a slab from your local deli. Ham is great in this, but so is turkey, pepperoni, or even salami! The latter two are obviously more flavorful so just be careful to not overpower the other ingredients!
So now you have the pasta cooked and cooled, the veggies and meat of choice are cut to the desired size, you just start tossing it with the dressing. I use regular Italian Dressing but I also use some of the oil that the mozzarella is marinated in. Don’t fret, this does not make the dish too oily! It does however, add a good bit of flavor!
Freshly shredded parm is optional, but let’s be honest … why would you leave it off??? Well, if you’re my dad it would be because you can’t stand the stuff but thankfully we aren’t all like my dad in that regard! HA HA
Cold Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 12 oz garden rotini pasta cooked
- 1 medium cucumber diced
- 1 medium tomato diced
- 6 oz black olives sliced
- ½ jar marinated artichoke hearts small jar, diced
- 1 ½ cup baked ham diced
- 1 cup marinated mozzarella balls halved
- 2 Tbsp red onion diced
- ½ tbsp red pepper flakes optional
- shredded parmesan to taste
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 Tbsp marinade from mozzarella balls .
Instructions
- Boil pasta according to package instructions, drain and rinse in cold water then set aside.
- Chop the rest of the ingredients to desired size.
- Combine all ingredients, then toss with dressing and marinade oil.
- Taste for salt and pepper.
- Chill before serving.