I don't know which I could eat a bowlful of first, potato salad or macaroni salad. I love both, but don't make them often because of my lack of restraint. For macaroni salad, it has to be elbows. Chopped hard-boiled eggs, sliced pimento stuffed green olives, chopped red bell pepper and celery including some leaves. Hellman's mayonnaise. Has to sit in the fridge overnight...add paprika on top before serving.

I am not a fan of pasta salad. I never had one that had enough flavor for me. It was either sickly sweet and bland or bracingly acidic and bland...

So I don't even eat it anymore. I love tater salad though,as long as its mine.

Amylou - never anything sweet in macaroni salad, potato salad, tuna salad, egg salad - ugh! I went to a 4th of July party at a friend's house a few years ago and many of them were from Atlanta. I can read recipes online and know if it calls for 2 cups of mayonnaise they're from the South.

Amylou, I had a friend who made pasta salad that way. Ugh. There actually is such a thing as good pasta salad. :)

So... Macaroni. I won't eat most macaroni salad. I don't like slimy (dressed) cold pasta. The one kind I like is deli style: ditalini, finely chopped red and green bell peppers, mayo, pickle juice. I think I'm forgetting something.

But pasta salad? That's a whole different thing. I'll eat it if it's not icky like Amylou said. Rotini (or large shells, etc.) and cut up roasted veg, with Italian herb vinaigrette (red wine vinegar, olive oil, herbs and seasoning). The pasta needs to be tossed with the dressing while well drained but still warm. The veg should be about half the size of a piece of the pasta: peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, romanesco. Optional olives, parm, etc. I like hearts of palm and artichokes. I really don't like the parm mixed in. It can eat gritty. It's good sprinkled on top of one's portion. :)

Elbow macaroni here also when making traditional creamy salad. Hard boiled egg, sweet pickles, chopped bell pepper (preferably red,) chopped celery and chopped black olives. 1/2 mayo & 1/2 sour cream with a tiny squirt of mustard. Salt, pepper and ground thyme. Topped with paprika just before serving.

But I also love Barilla's Cellentani (corkscrew) with fresh mozzarella balls and cherry tomatoes with fresh basil dressed simply with pomegranate vinegar/olive oil. Sometimes if I have an abundance of fresh green beans I will blanch a good handful of them and add to it. A magnificent summer lunch!

The only pasta salad I make is with rotelli or rotini pasta plus fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, Mozzarella di bufala, olive oil, and white wine vinegar. I also add either black pepper or red pepper flakes (but not both) and a tiny bit of salt. Like Ediej, I generally make this in the summer when I have basil and tomatoes in my yard, although I often have cherry tomatoes in my yard in January, as well as basil.

I like it best with a vinaigrette or Italian dressing too, along with olives, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, broccoli flowerettes, heart of palm and/or artichokes, red or white kidney beans. I like bowtie pasta best.

I've never been a fan of traditional mayo-based macaroni salad. Other pasta salads can be good but many are fairly blah in flavor. plllog mentioned adding dressing while the pasta is still warm. This is key IMO. I also do that with potato salad by adding vinegar to the drained, warm potatoes. Makes a big difference.

I like a creamy pasta salad w/ chunks of vine-ripe tomatoes folded into the salad just before serving. It's my ultimate summer comfort food.

I love any kind of salad in the summer. lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pasta, potato, chicken, ham, shrimp, fish, etc. With mayo, without mayo, with any kind of dressing, keep them coming. Only in the summer. I like salads in the summer and soup in the winter.

It's funny but I don't think of macaroni salad as pasta salad! Two different things in my brain. I have never made macaroni salad, but will always try it at a potluck - it seems people here often add cubed cheddar cheese. I like most of them if they don't use miracle whip or add anything sweet. But I just want one serving at a potluck; that's enough for the year for me.

I think of pasta salad as something other than macaroni with various vegetables and flavors and made from a myriad of shapes...love an Italian with all those flavors or Greek with feta and Kalamata olives and veggies. Or a seafood pasta salad made with shells.

I love pasta salad....but for the one with miracle whip and cubed velveeta.
I make lots of pasta salads for church meals....and for my own. Usually a dijon honey vinaigrette....make with white balsamic for color.....and cooked fusilli or elbows and about any sort of veggies I can think of....zucchini, cucumber, peppers of all colors, pea pods or frozen peas, black olives, artichoke hearts. water chestnuts, halved cherry tomatoes, onion of all sorts, jicama, celery, carrots blanched, as well as cauliflower and broccoli.....
sometimes it turns out to be marinated vegetables with pasta and some times pasta salad with veggies. Oh yes and very often some fresh grated parm.

I like pimento cheese, but not pasta salads. Don't really care for potato salad either.

I have never liked mayo-type macaroni salads, Never make them, won't take any in a buffet/potluck, But I do like an Italian style rotini salad, like Lars and others describe.

I use either homemade or store bought Italian dressing and no mayo. To me pasta salad is vinegar based. Macaroni salad is mayo based. Just my thought

I like the Hawaiian macaroni salad--found on Pinterest. Macaroni salad tastes better IMO if it is cooked longer than al dente. It absorbs the dressing better.

IMO, there is a huge difference between macaroni salad and pasta salad!! Macaroni salad is almost always prepared with a creamy based dressing - mayo, flavored mayo (Miracle Whip), sour cream, ranch dressing, etc. or some combination thereof. Other ingredients are variable but usually include onions, chopped celery, sometimes chopped sweet peppers, pickles or pickle relish and maybe black olives and hard boiled eggs. A completely different flavor profile from most other pasta salads.

Also if you want to use Italian dressing, I recommend salad supreme from McCormick.

I like macaroni salad as long as it’s a bit on the dry side. I don’t like it soupy.

I’ve been wanting to try this version:

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/mexican-macaroni-salad-2524887

Love pasta salads. I do one with cheese tortellini, small broccoli florets, red onion, bacon, raisins, sunflower seeds, and Italian vinaigrette dressing. It’s a crowd favorite.

I just came across this and wanted to share, will be trying it. I think the crunch would be great in macaroni salad:

https://www.chelseasmessyapron.com/macaroni-coleslaw-salad/

I think that really sounds good. With the quarantine, we have not been doing enough to work up and appetite. At least once a week we each have two small sliders and a scoop of salad. I might try the crunchy next week.

I've made the Mexican salad by Pioneer Woman. We liked it quite well.

My favourite is Ina's Orzo and Roasted Vegetables

I don't like mayo potato salads so I make one using whole grain mustard, olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Macaroni salad at our house is the same as potato salad. I usually only make it for potlucks though....eggs, mayo, a titch of mustard, some chopped dill pickle, celery.

Pasta salad is a different animal. Years ago I was trying to reproduce the pasta salad from a restaurant we liked...it had a red French or Catalina-ish dressing. The first time I made it I ran out of French dressing so I finished it with Italian and that's how we always make it now...half and half. The Italian cuts the sweet of the French. Full meal deal salads might have diced ham or chicken and whatever vegies I have...lightly steamed carrots,broccoli, cauliflower. Red or green pepper, black olives, celery, little cubes of cheese.