If you don't like pasta salad why make it? I make pasta salads to use up leftovers, or when it's hot out and I don't want to cook much. I generally make them with oil (not mayo), garlic, herbs (basil, oregano, parsley), capers if it seems right, sometimes I add cheese and beans (feta and black beans work for me), grilled or fresh veg (broccoli, asparagus, red pepper, zucchini, corn), sometimes olives, sometimes oil packed sun dried tomatoes. I generally use big sturdy shapes like bowties or penne. Google the ingredients you like, see what recipes get turned up.

I make one with rotini pasta and add a chiffonade of basil, chopped vine ripened tomatoes, cubed mozzarella cheese, olive oil, and some fresh black pepper. It's sort of a Margarita style salad with pasta. I sometimes add olives, but not usually. The main flavor comes from the basil and tomato, and so both of those have to be very good quality.

I agree pasta salads can be pretty ho-hum. One thing that can help is to add some vinaigrette/seasonings while the pasta's still warm. Maybe try a Greek version with olives, feta, tomatoes, onion, cukes, fresh basil...whatever you like.

This is one vinaigrette I've used with good results. I don't measure, so the amounts are pretty much estimates. Again, be sure to add some while the pasta's warm.

3 T. red wine vinegar, minced garlic (1/4 to 1/2 tsp.), 1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. pepper, 1/3 cup olive oil.

Just remembering one version I've liked is Ina Garten's Orzo With Roasted Vegetables. It needs some tweaking IMO, such as the amount of dressing is too much for the salad ingredients. I either cut back on the dressing or increase the orzo (to about 12 oz.) and veggies.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/orzo-with-roasted-vegetables-recipe-1951921  

I make a Greek orzo salad that I think has lots of flavor. But I just ad lib - no recipe (salads are not dishes I bother with a recipe for except for dressings....sometimes :-). Orzo, feta crumbles, kalamata olives, diced red onion, cucumber and halved cherry tomatoes. And a vinaigrette dressing seasoned with oregano and thyme.

The first pasta salad I encountered was "Ooo. Good idea!" The second was "Okay! Pasta salad." After that it was "Another pasta salad." And that was with only having one once a year or so. I think a lot of people had the same reaction. DH used to ask me to make one for some of gatherings he attends that are potluck. Went over great at the beginning and then not so much. Last year a friend brought a "new, interesting" pasta salad to a party we hosted. Tasted like pasta salad. I recently made a new to me orzo salad. Tasted like pasta salad. Can you tell that I'm over pasta salad? haha

(I've said this before when that Ree Drummond macaroni salad was posted here: tried it and thought it just awful.)

Everything is a matter of personal taste. I'm not a fan of elbows with mayo (I mean literally just elbows and mayo), it has to has some more stuff in it for me. Pasta salad is definitely better when you add garlic and oil while the pasta is still very freshly cooked (and the heat takes the bite out of the garlic), funny enough I find the same is true for potato salad, it tastes better if the dressing is added very soon after cooking. Pasta salad is nice for hot days, using leftovers, for packability where there are no fridges (provided it's mayo free).

I feel the same about about pasta salad. I've eaten so many and not cared for most. This may sound heretical given that I'm 100% Greek, but the inclusion of feta in most pasta salads nowadays does not appeal to me at all. I've been feta'd out! There's something about the ubiquitous combination of feta and vinaigrette that is unappetizing unless it's in a classic Greek salad. Even then, I really have to be in the mood for that particular flavor combination.

I do make an orzo/manestra salad that's similar to what Lars described. It's got orzo/manestra, green onions, crumbled feta, toasted pine nuts, and sun-dried tomatoes. It's dressed with a simple vinaigrette with a touch of sweetening. I add a chioffnade of fresh basil and chopped tomatoes when serving.

"...funny enough I find the same is true for potato salad, it tastes better if the dressing is added soon after cooking."

Could not agree more. That step makes all the difference when it comes to really good potato salad.

I always dress potato salad while it's warm, or at least drizzle the warm potatoes with some of the pickle brine that I use in the dressing, the warm potatoes soak up the flavor better.

I'm not a fan of pasta anyway, it's flour/water/salt, kind of like eating paste in grade school. (grin) Add my sister's "recipe", which my girls just loved: elbow macaroni cooked just a minute too long, chopped deli ham, cubed cheese, usually Kraft singles, and copious amounts of Miracle Whip. That's it. I never could eat it, the kids thought it was ambrosia. Sometimes she didn't have ham and she'd add a can of tuna fish. That wasn't any better.

Just shows, once again, that taste is subjective and not objective. Just because I wouldn't eat that stuff doesn't mean my girls didn't. They still want me to make "Aunt Candi's" macaroni salad and it's just not gonna happen. They're adults, they can make their own!

Annie

I make a pasta salad for funeral lunches....actually it's a marinated vegetable salad, with pasta and for an occasion where you don't know for sure how many will be coming, you can add more pasta and it becomes a pasta salad with veggies rather than a veggie salad with pasta.
I make a basic Dijon, honey vinaigrette...adn I usually use dried oregano in it....then I start cutting up vegetables and add a bit of dressing as I go. Start with sweet onion....or white onion if you like...peppers, green or some colored too, as needed cucumber or 2, a zucchini, some broccoli, but I blanch that until it turns bright green, and some tomatoes seeded and cut up, carrot buttons...also blanched....black olives are good but they tint the pasta dark, cauliflower is good. Then I add about an equal quantity of pasta as vegetables. add dressing until all is moistened....let it sit for an hour and add a little more dressing if necessary. It's always a huge hit! sometimes I sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese....but we have a vegan or 2 so not at church but for family I do.
Shout if you need the recipe for the dressing, I have posted it so much I would suspect everyone that cares to has a copy.

I make a macaroni salad about once a year (because I can't keep my hands off of it). Elbow macaroni, chopped hardboiled eggs, sliced pimento stuffed green olives, minced celery, minced dill pickles, minced sweet onion, minced red bell pepper and Hellman's mayonnaise. I could eat buckets of it.

Seagrass, I'm not a big fan of macaroni salad, but your enthusiasm makes it sound good, even with olives (not that I'd eat them, but they sound good).

The thing about pasta salad is first and foremost, what's your relationship with cold, plain pasta? If you don't like it, will you ever like pasta salad? Next is how well do you like plain pasta with dressing on it? One piece of cold pasta with chipotle mayo on it is fine, but I couldn't eat a whole serving of it. For me to even entertain eating pasta salad it has to be dressed in a thin, herb vinaigrette. Not too much oil. Definitely little or no EVOO. But not so much vinegar that there's a standout sense of acid.

Texture is really important. The veg have to have crunch, and should be smaller than the pasta, but at least as much veg as pasta. If it's just dressed pasta with a few bumps in it, it's not for me. The veg should only be things you'd put on a normal pizza. Broccoli is disgusting because of the texture. Sauteed broccolini stems are okay. As they are on pizza. The texture of the florets is not to be countenanced.

Then there's the overall flavor profile. A lot of pasta salad just tastes like olives to me, which is a problem because I hate olives. By the time the other flavors have melded, the olives, and especially olives plus EVOO, have conquered the rest.

But I'm not a big recipe user, and my idea of what's yummy could be wildly different from yours, especially if you like olives. :) I like the big curly pasta cooked to soft (past al dente) but not falling apart. Lite olive oil (doesn't taste olivy) and red wine vinegar, in which Italian herbs and S&P have been soaking for an hour. (Add a little whole grain mustard and/or prepared horseradish for more kick. Maybe some garlic depending on the crowd.) I just go by feel and flavor on the quantities. Chopped red bell pepper, white onion or scallions, zucchini, thin sliced cremini mushrooms, and anything else that tastes good at the moment.

But I don't think that gets you the kind of recipe you asked for. I hope this discussion is helpful, at least.

Shambo, is it possible that you've grown so tired of feta in stuff because they're using inferior feta?

My pasta salad is much like Linda's... I call it Pasta Primavera and will usually use "corkscrew" pasta. It can be very flexible, like adding chopped up chicken to it, and small cubes of cheese. It's usually the dish that's gone first at pot lucks.

For a quick dressing, I'll default to just using Wishbone Italian Dressing.

I've made a variety of orzo salads too, but I really like the Pasta Primavera best.

I used to make a pasta salad at a place where I worked which was al dente penne, chopped red and green capsicums, celery, red onions, carrots and whatever else looked good in the fridge, dressed with Thousand Island dressing. Now, I'd eat pretty well anything with Thousand Island dressing, so I really liked that pasta salad.

We love it, pasta salad more than the mayo/macaroni kind. I put in cherry tomatoes cut in half, raw broccoli, black olives, diced carrots and cucumbers, heart of palm or artichoke hearts, canneloni or red kidney beans or chick peas, and Italian dressing. Sometimes I get the mozzarella pearls and add it.

Can someone explain why you make a difference between macaroni and pasta? It is pasta, no? By the way, i love pasta salads!

Yes, macaroni is pasta. To me when they say macaroni salad it is made with the regular macaroni like mac and cheese is made with. Pasta salad is made with any other shape.

So many great suggestions; I thank one and all. Some I shall try as written, but think it would also be fun to take something from this recipe, and something from another recipe, until I succeed in making an acceptably good pasta salad for family and friends

Linda, I am one without your dressing recipe, and since I look up to you and your cooking methods, please share. Thank you.

.

We like pasta salads around here, but tend to only eat them when it's warm out. I agree with others about dressing while the pasta is a bit warm. I prep my dressing and other salad stuff into the bowl and mix it up, then when the pasta is drained and rinsed down to warm instead of steaming hot I add it to the salad bowl for folding in. Some are more tried and true, a lot of them are mostly just thrown together with whatever is on hand.

Tuna salad with drained water packed tuna, elbow macaroni, Miracle Whip, tinned baby peas, diced celery and yellow onions, minced dill pickle and some capers.

Chicken bacon ranch that starts out with a box of the store bought pasta mix and use more Mayo than the recipe calls for, adding in a bit of buttermilk powder, dill, parsley, and wet minced garlic, then I add additional larger seashells and dehydrated grated carrot to the cooking water, and cooked chicken, crispy bacon, tinned baby peas, diced celery and onions to the bowl.

Asian fried chickpeas and orecchiette or mini-bowtie pasta. Heat up equal amounts of sesame and veg or olive oil. You will be using this oil as your salad dressing oil. Toss in some hot pepper flake, a bit of wet minced garlic, and the chickpeas and fry them up a bit to get a little crunch on the outside, but still soft inside. Kill the heat to let the oil cool, remove the chickpeas to a paper towel to drain. Julienne dice colored sweet peppers, a couple diced green onions, and a tin of water chestnuts, diced. Julienne diced radishes or fresh edamame are nice additions to this salad. The dressing is the oil you fried your chickpeas in, add some soy sauce, ginger- fresh or dry is fine, wet minced garlic, a dash of lime juice... stir in your pasta. Optional toppings can be toasted sesame seeds, diced tomatoes, snipped chives. If you want to adjust the scoville, adjust with some hot sauce as a finisher.

I do a few Italians and Greeks. Generally penne, fusilli, orzo, or radiatore. Italian or Greek seasonings, oil and vinegar based dressing.. onions, tomatoes, sweet peppers, sometimes cucumbers, sometimes whatever leftover meat is in the fridge.. sometimes black or green olives or other pickled veggies. Sometimes we have some gyro meat and sauce leftover, and I'll add in fresh onions and mix with orzo.

Regular bow-tie or campanelle pasta with sherry vinegar and oil, chorizo, peppers pickled and fire roasted are good, fresh parsley and onion... small white beans or black beans go nicely with this one. A bit of green olives or fresh tomato are good too.

Campanelle pairs up with fresh peas and seafood nicely in a dill dressing of any base type.

Broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower are regular additions to pasta salads. Summer squash, fresh green beans, radishes, and beets too when the gardens are ripe for picking.

Dressings range, like the tuna salad is specifically MW, and the chicken bacon ranch is Mayo. I use various oils and vinegars.. sometimes I use a squirt or few of salad dressings. Sometimes some sour cream gets added, or leftover sour cream based dips. Mustards, horseradish, hot sauces.

Stuff like cheeses and boiled eggs appear in salads, though I tend to prefer them as add ons/toppings at the time of service rather than mixing into the salad.

beesneeds - that's quite a tutorial!! Thank you!!

islay, you're right, macaroni is pasta. Here if it's the elbow macaroni and mayo based dish, it's "macaroni salad". If it's dressed with anything other than mayo, it's pasta salad. I sure do not know why.

I haven't eaten one that I really liked yet, although some are tolerable, especially if they have lots of vegetables and less pasta.

Annie

Plllog, perhaps your'e right about the quality of feta. When I make that orzo salad, pita, or an old fashioned Greek salad (lettuce, onion, cukes, & tomatoes), I always buy an imported feta.

But there's something about the feta-laden Greek salads, wraps, pizzas, salad dressings, etc. featured in restaurants and grocery stores that actually turns my stomach. Just the smell of the combo of feta, oregano, and olive oil does me in. It seems to be everywhere.

Weird, I know.

DandyRandyLou,

I will pass on pasta salad except this one which is my comfort food in hot weather. I was trying to copy one a friend of a friend shared. I have made it without the grapes or apple but I miss the surprise addition of piquent (?) bites. The cooled pasta becomes unstuck with the pickle relish. Mayo comes last so as to be minimal for less calories and because I like it better with less. Can you tell I Love celery?

*** Favorite Pasta Salad
2 c. dittalini pasta or sm. shells (do not use larger!) (about 8 oz.)
1/3 - 1/2 c. sweet pickle relish, or more
3-4 stalks celery, diced same size as cooked dittalini
6 oz. can albacore tuna, drained & flaked
1/3 c. mayonnaise
1/2 c. sweet green grapes halved or 1/2 tart Fuji apple, chopped

Boil pasta 7-8 min. (al dente) --- drain, rinse & cool to room temp.
Toss with pickle relish first. Taste; add more if desired.
Mix in celery & apple or grapes.
Flake in tuna & toss to incorporate.
Now add mayo only as needed to bind.
Chill 4 hours or overnight.

note:
I tried 2 cans tuna --- not good! Too overpowering on tuna taste.

IC, I think more specifically, "macaroni salad" is one of those mid-20th C. Americana dishes that considers anything glued together with mayonnaise a "salad". It's often found at delis as a side to go with sandwiches, along with cole slaw and potato salad, which also in such a place would have a mayonnaise based dressing. Macaroni salads are made with small elbow mac, ditalini or once in awhile mini shells. Small to medium elbow or straight macaroni, or mini-shells, are also the most common for American mac and cheese, which is a different kind of dish from a European style pasta and cheese dish. For sure, you don't want any kind of ridged pasta that's meant to hold the sauce, like rotini, fusilli, or radiatori, or open tubes like penne. They hold too much mayo.

Here, if it's called "pasta salad" it usually has some kind of vinaigrette, rather than mayo, and more and bigger veg than a macaroni salad. Many are more veg than pasta. Most are kind of Italian in flavor, unless specifically designed to be something else.

Shambo, I was also raised with really good imported feta always sold in brine, so I find the chopped erasers in a lot of prepared foods irritating, too. :)

Thank you for the enlightenment. I love these differences.

I have never eaten a tasty pasta/macaroni salad. They are always underseasoned and boring. Even the ones ive tried to make myself. Not to mention down here in the south they are all very oddly sweet,as is almost everything else I find. So I've given up on them. I'll make some Mac and cheese instead. Good luck with your pasta salad search though....

I make pasta salad once a year usually for the 4'th of July. Last year I went overboard on the ratio of veggies and elbow mac. Lots more veggies and small amount of mac. I usually use cukes, cherry tom halved, red, green, yellow, orange sweet peppers, cauliflower, celery, sweet onion, green olives, zucchini, all diced. With a vinaigrette. Last years was almost all veggies with a few elbows in each scoop. My family liked it a lot and has requested I keep the mac to a *barely there* amount from now on.

I'm not sure macaroni or pasta salad has a long shelf life. I also think a lot of people buy it at a grocery deli or fridge case and it has been sitting around too long, or make it ahead too long for a potluck. It doesn't hurt to "refresh" a home made salad with a shot of dressing before serving either.

I'm kinda dead lazy, so if I want pasta salad, I use Newman's Own Zesty Italian dressing on it. Works for me. But now that I am going low salt, not sure what I will do . . .

This is one I make that I cannot stop eating.

Tuna Macaroni Salad

8 ounces (1/2 box) rotini , cooked and drained

1 can cream of celery soup

1/2 c mayonnaise

2 T onion, finely chopped

16 oz package broccoli-cauliflower-Carrots, thawed

12 oz can albacore tuna, water packed

Mix and chill for four hours. Even better the next day.

You can pretty much take all ingredients listed above and add only what you prefer. I've never cared for mayo based or sweet pickles in anything.

I'm pretty lazy but one extra minute to open ingredients for a good homemade dressing is three containers instead of one. And a quick kitchen deck snip of fresh herbs.

I never use a recipe, just what I have fresh in the crisper drawer, freezer and pantry. Pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, grapes, dried cranberries, roasted garbanzos, lentils, fresh corn off the cob, love celery, celery seed, yada, yada. Cashews, pepittas, pecans, etc. Toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds, roasted red pepper....miso for an Asian style. Fresh ginger! Chopped golden beets and radish. Apples chopped and lots of lemon/lime, AC vinegar...

Garden is starting to produce so all that goes in...baby greens, chives....

It is July weather here now. We go up to the mountains and I prep ahead on Friday nights a pasta salad, bean salad, slaw, and a potato salad. At least thee of the four for sides that covers a couple meals and a lunch snack while gardening...

Not big portions but covers a few uninvited guests that may stop by and stay for dinner.

For us the pasta quality is key. My favorite is a GiovanniCastiello fusilli. I must have 20 pics from last summers pasta salads. All different. I just break it up a bit before boiling. It has that microscopic 'tooth' from using brass dyes. One package is close to 18oz so 1/3rd of that makes quite a bit.

That is a beautiful pasta sleevendog. I don't tend to use the longer pastas available around here because it's mostly smoother flat or round stuff. Or long round spirals and large chunky stuff.

I have to admit I use cheaper pasta.. but it having a texture, tooth, or groves that are easy to get into is important.

And messing around with flavors too. We tend to rotate more than you do than do a bunch of different ones at once.. it's just the two of us now so I have to remember to make less.. like we just finished up a 2-4 day run of eating out a batch of chicken bacon ranch pasta salad that overlapped the tail end of some horseradish brussels sprouts slaw.. tonight I'm cooking off little red taters while the kitchen is hot anyway to chill off to make another round of cold salad. I should do a bean salad soon.

Something I've noticed about how I make batches of these kinds of salads is that the quantities of stuff kind of remains the same. Like a box/half/1/3 package depending on what kind it is is the "standard" amount of pasta I use depending on how many cans/meats/veggies.

And to the thread in general.. does other cold pasta use count as salad? Or other cold service?

Sometimes I make cold stuff with big pasta too. Like big tube pastas or shells, leftover lasagna noodles to stuff or roll up with tuna salad, chicken salad, veggie salads of minced tomato, cukes, onion, olives, ect.. and drizzle with the sauce of choice to keep the pasta moist till service. Having your salad in the pasta instead of having your pasta in the salad. I've done this sort of thing for larger party service on occasion. Or when I end up with tail end packages of big pasta for whatever reason and got a few to pack off with the random can of tuna or whatever for a couple lunches.

I pretty much like any pasta/macaroni salad if someone else makes it:) The only pasta salad that I've made in the last few years is a Lemon/Honey Orzo Salad with chicken, feta (sorry Shambo:), cucumbers, red peppers and dill from Cooking Light. Shhhh though, I about triple the honey.

This thread should inspire me to maybe spread my wings a bit!

CathyinSWPA

beesneeds - you've given me an idea for half of a box of large shells. I'm going to cook them, stuff them with tuna salad, broil with cheese on top for tuna melts. Thanks for the inspiration!!

Sounds like tuna noodle casserole but fancier. Yum. You could moisten the tuna with cheese sauce or mushroom sauce, that's how I make a from scratch meal (as opposed to cans, less salt, less MSG etc.), or sour cream like fish enchiladas.