This Pesto Pasta Salad is made with just 5 ingredients and is full of all kinds of delicious and fresh flavors. A homemade pesto is the dressing for tender cooked spiral pasta that is tossed with mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes, and black olives.
Pesto Pasta Salad is a great summertime side salad dish for picnics and reunions. It is also a great weeknight side to your favorite burger or a crispy chicken sandwich.
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Garden Fresh Vegetables
My favorite time of year is harvest time. I love when the fresh basil is pushing out its lovely aroma and the tomatoes are turning nice and ripe. If I had my way, I could live on fresh tomatoes and basil straight from my garden year round.
Summertime is also the time when we are looking for variety in our side dishes and that is where today's recipe for Pesto Pasta Salad came to be. It seemed natural to think about adding some homemade pesto to spiral pasta. I love how the little swirls catch all that flavor!
Tossing in halved cherry tomatoes seemed the right thing to do and for color contrast, I added the black olives. The whole family fell in love with this new pasta salad recipe and we will be enjoying it often this summer!
What You Need To Make This Recipe
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Pesto. If you have never tried pesto, you are surely missing out. I will use this recipe for Pistachio Pesto or Homemade Basil Pesto (made with pine nuts). Making your own pesto is highly recommended as it is much more cost effective.
I highly recommend spiral pasta for this recipe, however any shape you like will work so use what you have on hand.
Pitted black olives add to the colors of the salad but also are delicious. However, if you are not a black olive fan, you can leave them out.
Tips And Substitutions
- Precook the spiral pasta and make sure it is well drained. It is ok to rinse the pasta with cold water to rinse the starch off for this recipe.
- Once drained, toss the pasta with a tablespoon of olive oil to prevent it from sticking together.
- Make it a creamy pesto pasta salad and add ¼ cup of greek yogurt to the pesto before tossing.
- Add your favorite garden fresh veggies. Cucumbers, red, and yellow bell peppers are good ones to try.
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📖 Recipe
Pesto Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 4 cups cooked spiral pasta
- 2 cups mozzarella pearls
- ½ cup homemade pesto
- 2 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 2 cup Black Olives halved
Instructions
- [mv_schema_meta name="place ingredients in bowl"]In a large bowl, toss the black olives, tomatoes, and mozzarella pearls together. [mv_img id="26188"]
- [mv_schema_meta name="toss in pesto"]Add the pesto and toss to coat. [mv_img id="26189"]
Video
Notes
Tips And Substitutions
- Precook the spiral pasta and make sure it is well drained. It is ok to rinse the pasta with cold water to rinse the starch off for this recipe.
- Once drained, toss the pasta with a tablespoon of olive oil to prevent it from sticking together.
- Make it a creamy pesto pasta salad and add ¼ cup of greek yogurt to the pesto before tossing.
- Add your favorite garden fresh veggies. Cucumbers, red, and yellow bell peppers are good ones to try.
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