Mediterranean Pasta Salad

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.

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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.

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5 from 6 votes

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

By: Julie Chiou

Tender pasta is tossed with crisp vegetables, salty olives, tangy feta cheese, and a zesty balsamic dressing.

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Chill time: 4 hours hours

Total Time: 4 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Servings: 8

Ingredients 

½1x2x3x

• ▢ 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

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.

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Nutrition

Serving: 1serving (283 grams), Calories: 514kcal, Carbohydrates: 51g, Protein: 17g, Fat: 27g, Saturated Fat: 8g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g, Monounsaturated Fat: 15g, Cholesterol: 39mg, Sodium: 1547mg, Potassium: 436mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 6g

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Photographs by Meg McKeehan Photography