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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.
- Add the cucumber, tomatoes, red onion, olives, feta, and hard salami on top.
- In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar, sugar, salt, and 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
The pasta salad looks delicious
Easy, fast, light and – very – tasty! Split recipe in 2 and thought “way too much” – but I was wrong. Bobby – the husband – really loved it. Thanks so much for a great dinner and almost NO clean up! My kind of weeknight meal. BTW – I used regular balsamic vinegar and it did not turn the salad brown. Maybe that cook used too much?
Perhaps that is why! I’m so glad you all loved it!
I have made this and it is delicious. Can you tell me what the nutritional value of the dish is please thanks ?
Unfortunately, no. There are many reasons as to why I don’t post nutritional information on my recipes but mainly it’s because I’m not a registered dietician or nutritionist so for me to give any sort of nutritional information would be incorrect and inaccurate. There are also many differing factors when it comes to nutritional information and since I do not have the knowledge in this, I do not feel comfortable posting this sort of information. If you must have this information, there are many calculators out there (free and paid) that can help you with calculations. A simple Google search would pull up some of these calculators, but again, I’m not endorsing them as I do not know how accurate they may be.
Wow, this is a must have recipe for the upcoming summer months! This looks absolutely delicious! Can’t believe someone would actually comment negatively on one word you used…..shame on them!
sounds like a wonderful salad I’m going to make it for a street party tomorrow.
Sad though that you compare your self in the 1st sentence to someone who has suffered severe brain oxygen starvation Ceribal Palsy or the extremely old fashioned and outdated word Spastic (which refers to the condition in which the muscles in the body go into involuntary spasm due to said brain damage) this is a birth complication that devastates many families world wide,
Shame you couldn’t find another way of describing yourself?
Unless indeed you do have cerbal palsy and therefor I apologise, take back my previous comment and stand corrected XX
Hope you enjoy this for your party. Sorry you found that word offensive. We use it over here all the time when we talk about how all over the place we are. Didn’t realize that was a negative connotation.
Hi Julie,
What a great recipe! I found this recipe on Pintrest and made this last night for my guests and everyone loved it. I just finished the leftover and this is had left me asking for more.. brilliant pasta salad recipe for keeps.. loved the dressing. Thanks a lot!
Glad you and your guests enjoyed this!
I found this on Pinterest and I must say I was totally pleased.This salad is absolutely delicious. I made this for a picnic and it was a total hit. I also add sundried tomatoes( for some reason I can’t eat regular tomatoes). Other than my weird tomato situation this pasta salad is awesome. This was my first recipe from your site and I’m hooked!
Sundried tomatoes in this sounds great! I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe – hope you try some more! :)
Made this pasta salad yesterday and the flavors were wonderful, but your photo looked so much prettier and brighter than my salad–the balsamic turned the pasta and the feta brown. Did you use white balsamic?
I’m glad you enjoyed the salad! That’s interesting yours did that, Sherry! I just used regular balsamic. 1/8 cup of it mixed with 1/3 cup of olive oil should’ve diluted it enough to not turn the dish brown. However, if this is the case with you, then yes, definitely use white balsamic vinegar next time.
I just found you from pinterest. The roast with the BUTTER recipe I am going to try for tomorrow. But I have to say- you have great recipes- but are also hilarious. I am sticking around.
Aw thank you! Glad to have you here! Enjoy :)
Looks amazing! I need to try this one soon!