Antipasto Pasta Salad

Pasta Salad makes for a great side dish for any meal, but this pasta salad might be ready for prime time!

I'm always going to love pasta

Here we go again. Another pasta post. Another day ending in "y." Hopefully, you'll find this one to be a little different though. Pasta salad is one of my favorite snacks! It's got everything you want! There's protein, there's plenty of veggies, there's cheese, and it's covered with a from scratch vinaigrette that really sets it apart!

Ready for Prime Time!

So, this pasta has everything, but what sets it apart is the amount of protein in this! It's called Antipasto Pasta Salad because the ingredients are based on an Italian Antipasto charcuterie board. This gives you a wide variety of meats and cheeses that you could potentially add to the dish, but I've added my favorites here on this recipe. Adding the extra meat and veg, you could totally make this a meal on its own if you choose! So we're going to say that this side dish is might just be ready for prime time!

What's in it?

For my Antipasto Pasta Salad, I like to add salami, pepperoni, and prosciutto. The last one isn't hard to find, but it can be expensive, you can always make it an optional ingredient. Now, the important part to remember about these meats, we want to cut them all about the same size as our choice of pasta. This will help the meat wrap around the pasta when you go to eat it, and makes it easier to get all of the salad in one bite.

Cheese is next. I love Parmiggiano-Reggiano (as you all know from several posts like this one: https://tasteoftravis.com/lasagna-for-family-night/) and you COULD use it in this dish, but real parm is pretty expensive, and imitation parm isn't worth it. SO, I'm using provolone cheese in this salad. It's very tasty, it's cheaper, and you can cut it down to size. The one thing you want to remember is to keep the cheese cold up until you go to cut it. That should help prevent clumping.

I thought you said veggies...

Yes! There are some veggies in here as well! We have black olives, green olives with pimentos. There are roasted red peppers, red onions, and cherry tomatoes! When you add in the chopped Italian parsley, it's almost a salad with some pasta instead of a pasta salad. We're not done yet. Like all salads, this pasta salad needs a dressing

I wouldn't just have you throw a store bought dressing on this pasta salad after all of these other amazing ingredients! The vinaigrette here is creamy and tangy! We're going to mix in some vinegar, your choice, though I like to use red wine vinegar or apple cider here. Then we'll add some Dijon mustard, some Worcestershire sauce, a bit of mayonnaise, a crushed garlic clove, a pinch of sugar, some salt, a dash of oregano, and a dash of thyme. If you have it, I also recommend adding one anchovy filet. It gets broken up before we mix in the olive oil, and it really sets off the flavor! Once we have mixed all of those ingredients together, just slowly whisk the olive oil in and emulsify the dressing! The result is going to be better than any zesty Italian dressing you can buy on the store shelf!

Wrapping it up

Once the vinaigrette is made, all that's left to be done is adding the cooled pasta (I use tri color rotini for more color), the meat, cheese, and most of the veggies. Mix everything together well, cover and refrigerate. This should sit for at least an hour in the refrigerator, but over night is fine too. Right before you serve, add in the tomatoes and the Italian parsley to keep them fresh and vibrant in the dish.

This is quite possibly my favorite side dish. It's the dish I bring to every pitch-in or get together (when I'm not the one hosting and cooking most of the meal.) I always make more so that I have leftovers for a quick snack during the week. If you try it out, be sure to leave a comment below! I hope you enjoy!

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5 from 1 vote

Antipasto Pasta Salad

A delicious side dish that can also be served as the entree!

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Italian

Keyword pasta salad

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Cooling Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours

Servings 10 people

Ingredients

• 24 oz Tri Color Rotini Pasta or your favorite short pasta
• 5 oz sliced black olives
• 5 oz sliced green olives with pimentos
• 8 oz cherry tomatoes – quartered
• ½ cup Italian parsley – chopped
• 4 oz roasted red pepper - chopped
• 4 oz hard salami – sliced into small strips
• 4 oz pepperoni – sliced into small strips
• 4 oz prosciutto – sliced into small strips
• 4 oz provolone cheese – sliced into small strips or shredded
• ½ cup red wine vinegar
• 1 clove garlic – crushed
• 1 anchovy filet optional
• 3 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 ½ cups olive oil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• Salt to taste

Instructions

• Boil pasta in a large pot of salted water until al dente
• Drain pasta and allow to cool
• While pasta is cooling, add anchovy filet (if using,) crushed garlic, red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, oregano, thyme, sugar, mustard, and mayonnaise to the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Whisk together until combined
• Slowly start pouring olive oil into mixture while whisking until everything begins to emulsify. Vinaigrette should be thick and creamy
• Add remaining ingredients except tomatoes and parsley to the bowl and mix with dressing
• Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour
• When ready to serve, add parsley and tomatoes and stir in. Serve immediately