We know that a pasta salad recipe does not scream “make me in winter”, but hear us out before you move along.

Pasta salad is not only for picnics and summer lunches. For us, it is a simple, relatively quick, flavour-packed,  salad that can be made with almost anything you have on hand and eaten as a main or side.

This particular pasta salad was influenced by the delicious flavours of Mediterranean.  We paired pasta noodles with fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, artichoke hearts, olives, sundried tomatoes & feta cheese, then topped it off with the simplest bright dressing!

Do we have your attention now?

What Ingredients go in Pasta Salad?

Great pasta salads take those boring noodles and transform them into something beautiful and delicious. 

This is a great time to channel your inner Maggie Hall (google her Art if you don’t know)!

Pasta – we’re using rotini for this pasta salad because it’s all we had on hand.  We also love using farfalle, penne, ziti or cavatappi. Rule of thumb, use whatever is in your pantry. With small kids Kristen often uses macaroni noodles or mini shell noodles. No judgement here. 

Veggies – is there anything better than a pasta salad with juicy cherry tomatoes and refreshing cucumbers?  Toss in some red onion and you’ve got yourself a bright, flavourful garden in a bowl! 

Olives – just grab them from the olive bar at your local grocery store—be sure to select pitted olives. If you’re in Calgary and you love olives, check out the Italian Centre, the olives are endless and pretty reasonable too. 

Cheese – growing up the only cheese we saw in pasta salad was baby cubes of marble cheese. We still think cubes of marble cheese are a delicious addition but, feta, bocconcini and parm will blow you away!

Fresh herbs and greens – for extra texture, flavour and spiciness toss in a handful or 2 of fresh herbs or greens.

Beans or Legumes – canned beans need to be celebrated more. They add density, fibre and are just damn good! Chickpeas are a favourite of ours, but the options are endless.

Protein – hard boiled egg, cubed salami, shredded rotisserie chicken, shrimp and canned tuna will take your salad from a side to a filling main dish. 

Al Dente? Al Yes

What is al dente? It just means that your pasta noodles haven’t been cooked to the point where they fall apart in your mouth.

Because no one wants mushy noodles in their mouth, you want some chew to those noods!!!

Most pasta noodles will tell you how long to cook to get them al dente, but if in doubt just grab a noodle when they’re cooking and try it out so you know where they’re at. 

Other Pasta Salad Combinations

Here are some other pasta salad combinations we are big fans of:

Southwest style – black beans, bell pepper, green onion, corn kernels, cilantro and queso fresco (and if you can’t find queso fresco, you can use feta or good ‘ol cheddar works too).

Caprese –  grape tomatoes, mozzarella pearls and fresh basil, oh my!  So basic and so delicious.

Italian inspired –  kalamata olives, red onion, grape tomatoes, cubed salami, mozzarella pearls, bell pepper, italian parsley and cucumbers.

The classic macaroni salad – hard-boiled egg slices, cubed marble cheese, cubed ham, peas and celery. Did you guys eat this as kids?

Tuna pasta salad – Lindsay’s fave – canned tuna, arugula, cucumber, olives, tomatoes and Italian parsley. Or Kristen’s  fave (taking you all the way back to the early 80s) – macaroni noodles, canned tuna, red onions, dill pickles, tons of parsley, mayonnaiose, dijon mustard and a good helping of salt and pepper. 

Building this pasta salad in one bowl not only means less clean up, but it screams easy.  But don’t let the easy part fool you – it is jam packed with flavour and goes with so many dishes. Rotisserie chicken, grilled halibut, garlic shrimp – there’s a ton of options.

Probably our favourite thing about this pasta salad recipe is how simple it is to switch it up and make it yours.  When we say use what you have on hand, we mean it.

We can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this recipe and be inspired by the combinations that you put together.

If you make this Mediterranean pasta salad We’d love to hear all about it.  Please comment below or post it on Instagram and tag me @mysweetmess and hashtag #mysweetmess.  And if you really love it, please share the link with friends and family.

Other recipes you might enjoy

Till the next recipe,

Kristen & Lindsay