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Our Italian Rotini Pasta Salad recipe is made with rotini pasta, turkey pepperoni, black olives, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, chickpeas, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese and pepperonicini, all tossed in our delicious homemade Italian salad dressing. This is a really tasty rotini salad to make for potlucks, game day, family get-togethers and pizza night. In fact, my family has always called this our pizza pasta salad.

Rotini Pasta Salad in a white bowl with two serving spoons.

This rotini pasta salad is one of our favorite pasta salad recipes to make. It has a great combination of ingredients, but the dressing is what really brings this salad together. 

Why You Will Love This Recipe

  • Flavor. We absolutely love all the flavors going on in this salad!
  • Quick And Easy. This pizza pasta salad is quick and easy to make. 
  • Great For Sharing. If you are ever asked to bring a salad to a potluck, this is the salad you want to take! It travels well and it’s always a hit! It’s also a great salad to make for pizza night, and family and friend get-togethers. It’s been one of our favorite summer salads to make over the years to go with grilled chicken for a casual meal.

Rotini Pasta Salad Recipe Ingredients

Small glass bowls filled with cooked pasta noodles, grated mozzarella, garbanzo beans, and cucumber slices for a rotini pasta salad.

  • Rotini Pasta. We use rotini pasta noodles for this pasta salad. 
  • Tomatoes. We like to use Roma tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, or a mix of both.
  • Onion. We use sliced red onions. When adding red onion to salads, you can soak the slices in water first for about 10 minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Soaking onions in water helps to mellow the flavor quite a bit. Be sure to dry them off well before tossing them in the salad.
  • Cucumber. Use either English or Persian cucumbers for this salad. If you use garden cucumbers, you’ll want to peel them and scrape out the seeds out with a spoon, because they both can be bitter tasting. English cucumbers and Persian cucumbers have a light peel and few seeds, so we like to use either of them for salad.
  • Garbanzo Beans. Use canned garbanzo beans or our home cooked chickpeas.
  • Black Olives.  We like to use black olives for this salad because they’re an ingredient in supreme pizza toppings.
  • Cheese. We use grated mozzarella cheese and grated parmesan cheese.
  • Turkey Pepperoni. We use turkey pepperoni which makes this salad worthy of being called a pizza pasta salad.
  • Vinaigrette. We use our easy Italian Salad Dressing for this salad. 

Find printable recipe with the measurements below.

Variations

Pasta salad with rotini in a white bowl and a fork.

How To Make Pizza Salad

  • Make Dressing. Add the ingredients to a wide-mouth mason jar, seal the lid and shake well. You can also blend the ingredients using an immersion blender (stick blender) or stand blender to emulsify the dressing. When you emulsify the dressing, it keeps it from separating so quickly. We prefer to use a stick blender to make this salad dressing. 
  • Cook Rotini. Cook the rotini according to the directions on the package.
  • Prep Ingredients. While the rotini is cooking, chop the lettuce and put in a salad spinner basket. Rinse under cold water and then spin to dry. Rinse the cucumber and tomatoes under cold water, and pat dry. Slice the cucumber and onion and cut the Roma tomatoes into 12 bite-size chunks and slice the cherry tomatoes in half. Drain the garbanzo beans in a colander and rinse under cold water until water runs clear and pat dry. Drain the olives. Grate the mozzarella cheese using a stand grater and the parmesan cheese using a fine hand-held grater.
  • Toss Salad. Transfer all of the ingredients to a large serving bowl. Drizzle the dressing over the ingredients and gently toss. Season with freshly ground black pepper.

Rotini Salad in a white bowl.

Serving Suggestions

This rotini salad is a perfect salad to serve with pizza, whether it’s takeout pizza, homemade pizza or our French Bread Pizza, sandwiches, soup, like our Lasagna Soup, Easy Chicken Tortellini Soup, Chicken Gnocchi Soup, Sausage Kale Tortellini Soup, and our Zuppa Toscana Soup, and with chicken like our Italian Dressing Chicken, Pan Seared Chicken Breast, Chicken Milanese and our Easy Parmesan Crusted Chicken. 

 

Rotini Salad in a white bowl with a fork.

Storing Leftovers

Store leftover salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If properly stored, the salad should last up to 3 days. Add more dressing and toss before serving if it becomes a little dried out.

Pizza Pasta Salad in a white bowl.

More Pasta Salad Recipes

Rotini Pasta Salad in a white bowl.
Yield: 6 Servings

Rotini Pasta Salad

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Our Italian Rotini Pasta Salad recipe is made with rotini pasta, turkey pepperoni, black olive, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, chickpeas, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese and pepperoncini, all tossed in our delicious homemade Italian salad dressing.

Ingredients

  • 16 ounce box rotini pasta
  • 1/2 red onion, peeled, halved through the core and sliced thin
  • 1-1/2 cups canned garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half or 3 large Roma tomatoes,
  • sliced lengthwise in quarters then chopped into bite size pieces
  • 1/2 large English cucumber, rinsed and sliced
  • 1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup black olives, sliced
  • 1 cup turkey pepperoni
  • 1/3 cup pepperoncini, sliced

For the Vinaigrette

  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2-3 tablespoons water
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon celery salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 3 kalamata olives, finely minced (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons Parmesan, finely grated cheese (optional)

Instructions

  1. Cook the rotini pasta noodles in a pot of boiling salted water according to the directions on the package. Remove a noodle from the pot using a ladle and check to see if they are al dente. Drain the noodles in a colander and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process. Set aside to drain and cool. We like to toss the noodles with 1 tablespoon of olive oil to prevent the noodles from sticking together.
  2. While the pasta is cooking, add the ingredients for the vinaigrette to a wide-mouth mason jar, seal the lid and shake well. You can also blend the ingredients using an immersion blender (stick blender) or stand blender to emulsify the dressing. When you emulsify the dressing, it keeps it from separating so quickly. We prefer to blend this salad dressing. Add the ingredients to a stand blender and blend until the dressing is smooth. Refrigerate until you're ready to serve.
  3. Rinse the cucumber and tomatoes under cold water, and pat dry. Slice the cucumber and onion and cut the Roma tomatoes into bite-size chunks or slice the cherry tomatoes in half if using cherry tomatoes instead of Roma. Drain the garbanzo beans in a colander and rinse under cold water until water runs clear. Drain the olives. Grate the mozzarella cheese using a stand grater and parmesan cheese using a hand-held grater.
  4. Transfer the cooled rotini pasta and the prepared ingredients to a large serving bowl. Drizzle the dressing over the ingredients and toss.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 784Total Fat: 57gSaturated Fat: 16gUnsaturated Fat: 41gCholesterol: 107mgSodium: 2121mgCarbohydrates: 37gFiber: 4gSugar: 3gProtein: 35g

theharvestkitchen.com attempts to provide accurate information, however, this nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. The nutritional information provided comes from online sources and calculations. See full disclaimer on About page.

© Deborah Duncan
Cuisine: Italian / Category: Salads