Is this a macaroni salad that you are making earlier in the day and serving later? What is happening is that the pasta is absorbing the dressing as it sits. Just make a little extra dressing and stir in to re-moisten the salad just before serving.

Ann

A drizzle of olive oil on the pasta before mixing the rest of ingredients will help coat and prevent as much absorption. Yes to extra dressing also.

I will have to try the olive oil. What I do now is make up my dressing in the morning when I 'still' have some ambition then wait until dinner time to put it together. Of course, by the next day it has dried up, so will make the extra dressing for it. It does not need much.

Thanks for your quick replies.

dody

I just got an email from Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen/Cooks Country and they were talking about this. They said one of the (secrets( to their mac salad was to *not* overdrain the pasta when cooked. Leave it essentially wet since the pasta will absorb the water as it sits. They also said to add some warm water to the salad as it sits to rehydrate it if it dries out. This would, in theory, be better than adding more dressing since you'd be adding more seasonings to it in the dressing so you risk overseasoning.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cool and Creamy Macaroni Salad

Can i get a good recipe for mac salad please

Did you see this post from a couple weeks ago?
http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4648173/best-macaroni-salad?n=22

To me a pasta salad where the pasta absorbs some dressing is much more flavorfull than one fresh dressed. If you toss the pasta in oil it will prevent it from absorbing the sauce....and the flavor...I just make sure I have extra dressing to add at the last.
You want a recipe? I have lots....but here's one.

Mastoccioli

1 lb mastoccioli cooked al dente drain and cool

Pour sauce over and refrigerate over night

Sauce

3 cups cider vinegar

1 ½ cups sugar

1 tsp ground pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp garlic powder

2 Tbls prepared mustard

1 ½ onions sliced…about 1 ½ cups

1 cuke diced…a big cuke or even 2…I remove the seeds so I
need 2

Small jar chopped red pimento

Chopped parsley

Dry oregano. about2 teaspoons full....add one and taste.
Can also add sliced radishes, red and green peppers and halved cherry tomatoes.

Linda, is 1 1/2 cups of sugar a misprint? I don't think I've ever put ANY sugar in a pasta salad dressing, but maybe with that much vinegar you'd need some but I can't imagine that much sugar with only a lb of pasta.

Nope....not a misprint......notice the 3 cups of vinegar. This is a vinaigrette type dressing.
At first ther will be a lot of sauce in the bottom of the bowl....but after sitting the al dente pasta absorbs a lot of the liquid

Thanks, you're too fast! I was just coming back because I forgot to ask about no oil in the dressing? I don't use sugar in my vinaigrette dressings (or maybe a pinch sometimes), so it just didn't sound right to me. So really no oil either?

Now you had me double checking the recipe....ti does call for 1 cup of oil in the cooking water with the pasta....but I never do that.
Hmm.....I guess no oil.....I last made it for a funeral lunch about a year ago...
The recipe originally came from the cook at our country club. They used to bring a container with 3 cups or stuff to your table as you sat down to eat. That mastociolli was always one item, others were a corn relish and those carrot "copper pennies"..... in addition to things like gherkins, olives, and some sort of a cheese spread>
A friend sweet talked the cook out of the recipe for the mastaciolli, and shared it.

Thanks for checking. It does sound very different from any I've ever made or eaten. Interesting the CC served it as an appetizer to everyone.