Easy Pasta Salad
This quick and easy pasta salad is the perfect fun and fresh summer salad! It’s loaded with pasta, veggies, cheese and ham and tossed with tangy dressing to bring all the flavors together perfectly.
Quick and Easy Pasta Salad Recipe
Summer is here and that means so are the picnics and potlucks. So, when your sweet neighbor invites you and your family to come over for a BBQ and asks you to bring a salad, you can bring this! It’s kid approved and really easy to make!
The best part about this pasta salad, is that it is so versatile! You can literally serve it with anything and it pairs perfectly! My little cowboys are big fans of this pasta salad. We enjoy it for days after I make it.
The Cowboys’ Rating: 9/10
Every time I make a new recipe, I have my family rate the recipe out of 10. By the time, these recipes make the blog, they’ve been tried and tested by some of my hardest tiny critics!
What Ingredients Are in Easy Pasta Salad?
- Tri-Colored Pasta – This pasta is my favorite to use for this salad. It’s colorful and fun but also tastes great cold. Not all pasta is good cold (trust me, we’ve tried a few that we not awesome.)
- Diced Ham – Sometimes I will buy a ham and dice up pieces of ham for this recipe, and sometimes when I’m in a hurry, I buy the precut diced ham and dump it right in. Whatever you choose is great.
- Tomatoes – Grape or cherry tomatoes are my favorite for this because they are full of flavor and easy to cut but any tomatoes will do.
- Cucumber – To add a little crunch, I like to add diced cucumber to this pasta salad recipe.
- Colby Jack Cheese – I prefer to use Colby Jack cheese for this recipe. I think that it pairs well with the other flavors in the salad.
- Zesty Italian Dressing – This is the dressing for the pasta salad. It’s the perfect tang for this salad and packs some huge flavor! I have used many different brands and they have worked great, just make sure to get the Zesty Italian Dressing.
Tools You’ll Need
How to Make Easy Pasta Salad
- In a large stock pot, heat water and cook pasta according to package directions.
- When done, drain and rinse and set aside to cool.
- Cut tomatoes and cucumbers into small bite sized pieces. Add to a large mixing bowl.
- Cut ham and cheese into small bite sized pieces and add to mixing bowl.
- Once pasta has completely cooled, add pasta to mixing bowl.
- Pour 1-2 cups Zesty Italian Dressing over top of the pasta mixture.
- Mix until well incorporated.
- Refrigerate for 1-2 hours before serving.
- Enjoy!
How to Store Easy Pasta Salad
The best part about this pasta salad is that it keeps in the refrigerator for days! My little cowboys love to have this for lunch for days after I make it. I simply store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will be good for up to 3 days. Before serving, just do a quick stir and serve.
What to Serve with Easy Pasta Salad
Easy Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 12 oz tri-color pasta
- 1-2 cucumber diced
- 2 cups grape tomatoes diced
- 2 cups diced ham
- 2 cups Colby Jack cheese diced
- 24 oz Zesty Italian dressing
Instructions
- In a large stock pot, heat water and cook pasta according to package directions.
- When done, drain and rinse and set aside to cool.
- Cut tomatoes and cucumbers into small bite sized pieces. Add to a large mixing bowl.
- Cut ham and cheese into small bite sized pieces and add to mixing bowl.
- Once pasta has completely cooled, add pasta to mixing bowl.
- Pour 1-2 cups Zesty Italian Dressing over top of the pasta mixture.
- Mix until well incorporated.
- Refrigerate for 1-2 hours before serving.
- Enjoy!
