A perfect pasta salad for any gathering, or just because! Rotini pasta, paired with vegetables, meats and cheeses, mixed with a salad seasoning blend and dressed with a quality homemade or commercial creamy Italian dressing. Pictured here with a tuna salad wrap and pickled baby beets.
Party Pasta Salad
It's pretty easy to make a pasta salad, and you don't really need a "recipe" so to speak. You just toss some cooked pasta with favorite vegetables, sometimes some kind of protein and dress it with a favorite salad dressing and voila, you've got a pasta salad!
Of course, you may not be able to recreate that combination unless you wrote it down and that's where a recipe comes in handy.
This pasta salad is one of those that went viral on social media, though, as usual there are lots of comments from folks talking about how they "have been making this all of their lives!"
I guess that's the nature of social media videos... everything old is made new again on TikTok because of the nature of viral video media. Of course, good or bad is still out there to be honest, because just today I saw on Reels, three videos in a row, one of which was completely fake AI and the other two were fake and staged and in my humble opinion, they ought to have to tell you that up front! Sigh.
Anyway, this viral pasta salad does seem to be a modification from the original and popular Supreme Pasta Salad, but with some fresh additions.
Just a quick reminder.... if you aren't interested in the chit chat, info, photos, tips, product recommendations and such on a blog, as always, you'll find the complete recipe text with measurements and instructions, as well as a printable document, a little bit further down the page. Just swipe or scroll down to the bottom of the post!
Here's what you'll need to make this version of Party Pasta Salad:
- 2 cups dry rotini pasta
- 2 cups broccoli florets, cut small and blanched
- 1 (4 ounce) jar pimentos, well drained
- 4 ounces (1/2 block) sharp cheddar cheese, cubed
- 1 cup chopped red onion
- 1/4 cup chopped mild banana pepper rings
- 1/2 cup chopped pepperoni
- 3 slices cooked bacon, chopped
- 1 cup shredded Italian blend cheese (I used a mozzarella/provolone blend)
- 1-1/2 cups creamy Italian dressing, or to taste, divided
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup McCormick Salad Supreme, or to taste, optional, but suggested
- 1 cup fresh cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- 1-2 tablespoons McCormick Salad Toppins, optional
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For the pasta, I'm using Dreamfields Healthy Carb Living (#ad) rotini and y'all know by now, if I'm cooking pasta is like I'm using my microwave pasta cooker (#ad) - usually the Fasta Pasta you see featured on my site, though I recently purchased this one with a separate steamer insert to try out.
These cookers do such a great job with pasta and it really is faster than waiting for a huge pot of water to boil for sure! My personal preference is to rinse the pasta, both to stop the cooking process and remove some of the excess starch.
Now... I didn't want to overcook my broccoli, so this time I didn't steam it over the pasta, but I did use the microwave to blanch it, since I prefer broccoli in a pasta salad with a little less bite than with raw.
If you're a friend of the blog, you'll be hearing more about the Anyday Pans (#ad), that has fast become another favorite kitchen tool. Depending on the wattage of your microwave, you should only need about a minute or two on high to blanch it and all you need in the pan is the moisture from rinsing the broccoli with no added liquid.
Put the cooked and well drained pasta in the bottom of a lidded storage container and add all of the components, except for the dressing, tomatoes and toppings. I like to reserve those for right before I'm serving it.
Give it a toss to mix everything well. Isn't that so colorful??
Add about a cup of the dressing and toss again to coat vegetables and pasta. I suggest a creamy style of Italian dressing for this pasta salad, so I'm using one that I discovered online from one of the influencers who used it - Imo's House Italian, though Olive Garden Signature Dressing (#ad) is another good one. I have fallen in love with Imo's and would love to try their pizza!
Any kind of creamy style Italian dressing that you already love would work just fine though, or you could opt for a Ranch style dressing as well.
Taste and add 1 tablespoon of the Salad Supreme seasoning and/or salt and pepper as needed. Toss, cover and refrigerate several hours.
When ready to serve, remove from refrigerator and let rest at room temperature for about 20 minutes so it loosens up. Toss gently with tomatoes.
These are two of my favorite salad add-ins, whether it's a green salad or a pasta salad. It just gives it a little extra punch!
We've alreaady mentioned the Perfect Pinch Salad Supreme (#ad), a great seasoning blend for salads that, although optional, is a key component to the viral TikTok version and they use a lot of it, around 1/4 cup or more. Sprinkle more into the pasta salad, taste and continue until it's to your liking. It contains paprika, poppy seeds, celery seed and sesame seed, black and red pepper, Romano and Cheddar cheeses, salt, garlic and buttermilk powder; and it really elevates any salad.
The Salad Toppins (#ad) adds flavor plus some crunchy texture to the pasta salad and contain things like sunflower seeds, dried onion, carrots and red and green bell peppers.
Add the additional seasoning, taste and adjust as needed.
Toss in some of the toppins, if using and stir.
For more of my favorite pasta salad recipes, check out this collection on my Pinterest page!
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