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Mediterranean Pasta Salad has all the vibrant flavors of the Mediterranean coming together in this fresh and flavorful pasta salad. Tender pasta is tossed with crisp vegetables, salty olives, tangy feta cheese, and a zesty balsamic dressing.
Mediterranean Pasta Salad Magic
This easy-to-make pasta salad is perfect for a light lunch, a side dish, or a potluck contribution. Like I said, magic! The most amount of work you have to do is chop up the ingredients and boil water for the pasta. If you can handle that, you can totally whip up this Mediterranean pasta salad!
I love to eat this pasta salad cold out of the fridge. You know how in college (or maybe this was just me), you’d eat cold pizza or cold baked ziti or just anything cold from the fridge after a night of not-so-good-ideas? Well, this is the perfect pasta salad to actually eat cold and enjoy cold! It’s really refreshing. It’s also really picnic and outdoor friendly since feta tends to not melt as quick in the heat — or at least that’s just my experience, so take that as you will. Of course, I wouldn’t recommend sunbathing this pasta all day – just the normal sitting out at room temperature, ya know?
The versatility of this pasta is what makes me coming back to making it again and again. If you don’t have some of the ingredients, you can easily substitute them for something else, or if you have other ingredients, you can throw them in too. It’s kind of like a clean-out-the-fridge salad but with a Mediterranean spin on it, which I guess if you dump everything in your fridge into it, it might not be totally Mediterranean, lol
How to Make Mediterranean Pasta Salad
- Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. Drain well after it’s cooked and put into a large bowl.
- Add all the remaining ingredients to the bowl with the pasta (cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, olives, feta cheese, and salami).
- Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients for the dressing (balsamic vinegar, garlic, sugar, salt, and pepper).
- Pour the dressing all over the pasta and toss everything well to coat with the dressing and to all disperse the ingredients evenly throughout.
- Eat at room temperature or put into the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours.
Mediterranean Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound (454 g) dried fusili/rotini pasta, or whichever pasta shape you like – bowties work well in this too
- 1 large cucumber, diced
- 1 pint (473 g) grape tomatoes, sliced in half
- ½ red onion, diced
- 1 cup (135 g) kalamata olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
- 1 cup (135 g) green olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
- 1 ½ cups (225 g) crumbled feta cheese
- 5 ounces (142 g) hard salami, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds and then quartered
For the dressing:
- ⅓ cup (79 ml) olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- ⅛ cup (29 ml) balsamic vinegar*
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box then drain well and place in a large bowl.1 pound (454 g) dried fusili/rotini pasta
- Add the cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, olives, feta, and hard salami on top.1 large cucumber, 1 pint (473 g) grape tomatoes, 1/2 red onion, 1 cup (135 g) kalamata olives, 1 cup (135 g) green olives, 1 1/2 cups (225 g) crumbled feta cheese, 5 ounces (142 g) hard salami
- In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper.1/3 cup (79 ml) olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, 1/8 cup (29 ml) balsamic vinegar*, 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- Pour over pasta mixture and toss well to coat.
- Serve at room temperature or place in refrigerator for at least 4 hours to cool.
Notes
Nutrition
FAQs
I used regular balsamic vinegar for this but a reader mentioned it turned her pasta salad a bit brown when she used regular balsamic. You can use white balsamic vinegar if you don’t want to possibly get a brown tint.
Bowtie would be a cute alternative. Penne and rigatoni work well too, but if it were me and I didn’t have fusilli, I’d do bowtie!
Greek chicken souvlaki, Greek beef souvlaki, or Greek chicken meatballs would all be perfect to serve with this pasta salad!
Photographs by Meg McKeehan Photography
This is my go to salad dressing with white balsamic vinegar! Absolutely love it!
Follow up on my last post — Just made your Pasta Salad Recipe – AH-mazing! I’m a home chef and I am not exaggerating – this is a wonderful delicious fantastic salad! This will now be my go to Pasta Salad. This would also be delicious with some sauteed chicken or shrimp added in as an extra protein, but does not need it. Thank you again for posting, followed the recipe exactly and it is superb!
My pasta is cooking as I write this – excited to make your pasta salad recipe! This looks delicious and like something I would eat every day :)
Will let you know how it turns out. And thank you for posting this. Have a great evening!
Excellent recipe but make sure you adjust the servings counter. I love this recipe and it has a great flavor. I made it as a meal prep for lunches for 4 days. Being a disabled Vietnam Vet with multiple health issues I cannot use the salami. Did not discover that until day 3. Next time I will use chicken or salmon.
Can this be used as a meal prep> If so, how many days in the fridge an it stay.
Thanks.
George
Yep, you totally could. I would say up to 5 days
Great. Will make next week for meal prep. Thanks.
Can this be made as a prep meal? If so, how long can it stay in the fridge/
Excellent pasta salad! Never made pasta salad before and I found it quite simple and everyone loved it.
What is the nutritional value of this recipe? I plan on making it tomorrow… looking forward to it, sounds delicious.
Hi, some recipes on my site don’t have nutritional information yet; working on it. In the meantime, please use Google and one of the many nutrition calculators out there.