Summertime pasta salad
This is another summertime dish that’s delicious and will help you utilize the abundance from your garden, or make the most of seasonal produce. Cherry tomatoes and banana peppers lend their bright flavors to this dish. I enjoy all the different colors in this dish, and you could opt to add even more color by using tri-color pasta.
Gather your ingredients. Start your pasta water on the stovetop.

While you’re waiting on the pasta, prepare and place the other ingredients in a dish with a lid, except the dressing and Parmesan cheese. Slice the tomatoes in half or quarters. Chop the banana peppers a bit, if desired.
An aside, here. I have a nifty tool that I use in the kitchen all the time. I usually have a food prep day each week, and chop up vegetables for the week’s meals. This includes onions and peppers most weeks. My kids like to help, and the idea of The Adapter using a super sharp knife weirds me out, so this tool is a safer alternative for her to use. Plus, my hands get tired easier (ah, age), and this is a nice back-up for me. For this recipe, I used it for the banana peppers, because I like these in very small pieces for this pasta salad. This particular style of chopper came with a ton of attachments, including a juicer. It’s dishwasher safe, easy to clean, can serve as storage and is extremely sharp!


When the pasta is finished cooking, drain and rinse in cold water, add some ice if you’d like, to cool it down quicker. Add to the other ingredients and gently mix. Add Italian dressing and about half of the Parmesan cheese at this point. Sometime I use the whole bottle of dressing, and sometimes I don’t. I want the flavors to mix, but I don’t want to drown all the ingredients. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight for the best flavor. Right before serving, I will sometimes add the rest of the dressing if I didn’t use it all at the start, and then I add the rest of the Parmesan cheese, or use the remainder for garnish.


Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 box rotini pasta, prepared, drained and cooled
- 4.25 oz chopped ripe olives
- 6 oz mild banana pepper, chopped
- 5 oz mini pepperoni
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, sliced
- 16 oz Italian dressing
- 5 oz shredded Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Prepare all ingredients.
- Place pasta, olives, tomatoes, pepperoni, and peppers in container together.
- Use desired amount of dressing and Parmesan cheese at this time, and allow salad to marinate overnight in the refrigerator.
- Before serving, add additional dressing and Parmesan cheese, if desired.
- Serve cold.