This Italian Pasta Salad with Salami is a must-have for your summer table! Packed full of bold Mediterranean flavours, colourful veggies, creamy mozzarella and salty salami.
It’s the kind of cold pasta salad that’ll steal the show at any BBQ, picnic, or party.
It’s also ideal for prepping ahead, just toss it all together, chill in the fridge, and you’re good to go. Simple, fresh, and delicious!
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📖 Step by Step Recipe
Italian Pasta Salad with Salami
Ingredients
- 500 grams Pasta - cooked and cooled
Italian Dressing Ingredients (make your own or buy shop brought one)
- 5 tablespoon Olive oil
- ½ Lemon - juice
- 2 cloves Garlic - minced
- 1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning/ Dried Herbs - mix of Oregano, Thyme, Basil, Parsley, Sage, Red Pepper flakes
Italian Salad (this is what we used but get creative and use what you like/have!)
- 80 g Salami
- 200 g Mozzarella Balls
- 8 Sundried Tomatoes - Finely chopped
- 1 Sweet Pepper - Diced
- ½ Cucumber - Diced
- 100 g Cherry Tomatoes - Quartered
- 100 g Sweetcorn - Tin
- ¼ Red Onion - Diced
- 60 g Green or Black Olives - pitted
- 4 tablespoon Pine Nuts
- 3 tablespoon Fresh Basil - chopped
Instructions
- Cook 500 grams Pasta before hand. Giving it time for it to cool off.
- Make the dressing by mixing all the Italian Dressing ingredients 5 tablespoon Olive oil, ½ Lemon , 1 tablespoon Italian Seasoning/ Dried Herbs, 2 cloves Garlic.
- Chop 80 g Salami into strips, if your 200 g Mozzarella Balls are large you can chop them in half. Gather and prepare all your salad items, we used 8 Sundried Tomatoes, 1 Sweet Pepper, ½ Cucumber, ¼ Red Onion , 100 g Cherry Tomatoes, 100 g Sweetcorn, 60 g Green or Black Olives, 4 tablespoon Pine Nuts, 3 tablespoon Fresh Basil.I find it best to chop and add onto a plate together, aim for equal amounts of each salad item for well-rounded flavour.
- Put cooked and cooled pasta in a mixing bowl and add all the prepared ingredients.
- Pour in the dressing and mix.
- Serve up in a large serving dish or plate.
- Garnish with more fresh basil on top.
- Enjoy as a lunch, dinner or a side dish to meat, fish or chicken.
Video
Nutrition
Another Mediterranean-inspired favourite! Our Italian Rice Salad contains colourful veggies, olives, and a zingy dressing. Light, tasty, and just as easy to make ahead for picnics or packed lunches.
Ingredients
We’ve kept it flexible – here's what we used, but you can easily swap things based on what’s in your fridge.
Pasta – We used standard fusilli, but penne, farfalle or conchiglie all work well. Make sure it is cold before adding other ingredients.
Salami – Brings a lovely savoury bite. You can sub with pepperoni or even chorizo.
Mozzarella Balls – Mini balls are easiest, or cut slices.
Sundried Tomatoes, Olives & Fresh Basil – These give a classic Italian flavour.
Cucumber, peppers, sweetcorn, red onion and cherry tomatoes add crunch and colour.
Pine Nuts – For a bit of crunch and nuttiness.
We also made our own homemade Italian dressing using olive oil, dried herbs, garlic and lemon, but feel free to use your favourite shop-bought one.
Storage Advice
Our Italian pasta salad can be made up to 3 days ahead and stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
This Mediterranean pasta salad recipe is perfect for parties or quick weekday lunches. If making ahead, wait to add fresh basil until just before serving to keep it fresh.
Serving Suggestions
This cold pasta salad is perfect as a BBQ side, picnic salad, or light lunch on its own.
It's also great with air-fried chicken thighs, oven-baked seabream, or suya beef kebabs!
More Salad Recipes
If you love this Italian pasta salad, why not try a few of our other easy and delicious salad recipes?
Perfect for serving at barbecues, picnics, or as a simple side dish with dinner – there’s something here for everyone!
Steve says
This looks awesome, I will try this out over the weekend and let you know how it comes out 😎👌
P.s love the emails you send 👍🏻
Luke and Kay says
Thanks, Steve! Hope you enjoy making it this weekend — I’d love to hear how it turns out. And thank you for the kind words about our emails too, that really means a lot 😄🙌