Best Homemade Italian Dressing and Pasta Salad

When I set out to make a slew of homemade salad dressings I knew that some of them would be a total flop.

Like the creamy Italian dressing. It just didn’t work the way I made it. Chili lime needed a few tweaks, too. It had all the chili and lime but I forgot to counteract it with a little bit of sweetness. But once I added a little dab of honey and a bit more salt and pepper it made for a killer street taco slaw dressing.

I think that’s one of the things that new cooks tend to look over. We all screw up recipes. For me, it’s every other week or more. And it sucks. Every single time without fail, I feel some sort of disappointment or let down when I completely bomb a new recipe. Or when a tried and true recipe just doesn’t hit right.

I bet you feel the same way when it happens to you. Don’t let it keep you down for too long. Cooking is all about discovering new and interesting flavors for yourself. Even if that means burning one of those attempts to a crisp.

Anyhoo! Today I’m sharing one of the salad dressing recipes that came out STELLAR.

This Italian dressing came out like this:

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It’s bold and flavorful and has the right amount of bite from the vinegar. It blew my Dad’s absolute favorite Italian dressing (Pasta House Salad Dressing) completely out of the water.

This dressing is great on everyday dinner salads but, I think it really shines on pasta salad. So I’m going to share the recipe for both.

Because we all need a little more pasta salad in our lives!

This pasta salad recipe features the best of green vegetables. Olives, artichoke hearts, banana peppers, broccoli, and parsley sit center stage with red onion, mozzarella, parmesan, and homemade Italian dressing to top it all off!

Let’s make the Italian Dressing!

Supplies and Tools

• A salad dressing shaker, mason jar, or shaker ball bottle (the thing for smoothies!)

• Measuring spoons

• Liquid measuring cup (the kind with the pour spout) or regular measuring cups

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup, red wine vinegar

• 3/4 cup, extra virgin olive oil

• 1 tsp, salt

• 1 tsp, pepper, freshly ground

• 1 tsp, garlic powder

• 1 tsp, dried parsley

• 1 tsp, dried basil

• 1/4 tsp, dried oregano

• 1/2 tsp, Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients into mixing vessel. Then shake (or mix) vigorously until combined. Enjoy!

Now, the Pasta Salad!

Supplies and Tools

• Cutting board

• Chefs Knife (I like this one and this one!)

• Large Mixing Bowl

• Large Pot (Should hold a gallon of water: Like this one)

• Colander

• Mixing Spoon

• Spoon for stirring pasta

Ingredients

Here are the raw numbers:

• Italian Dressing (from above)

• 1 gal, water

• 2-3 Tbs, salt

• 1/3 lb, bowtie pasta

• 1 cup, broccoli florets

• 2 Tbs, green olives, sliced

• 2 Tbs, banana peppers, chopped

• 1/4 cup, red onion, finely sliced

• 1/3 cup, marinated artichoke hearts, cut into small pieces

• 1/4 cup, mozzarella balls, bocconcini or pearls

• 2 Tbs, Parmesan cheese, grated

Ingredient Substitutions and Notes

Pasta - Pasta salads don’t really call for a specific shape to make them tasty. I like to stick to a shorter noodle like a bow tie, penne or spiral. But ain't nobody gonna stop you from using spaghetti or linguine. You do you!

Olives - I used green olives with the pimentos inside of them. I sliced ‘em up a bit and then threw them into the salad. But, if you don’t like green olives and want to use canned black olives or slice up some fresh kalamata olives from the Italian market down the street you totally can.

Banana peppers - I used these in place of the pepperoncini peppers that you typically find in your take out pizza boxes. I had banana peppers in the fridge already so that’s what I used!

Marinated Artichoke hearts - These are easily one of my favorite ingredients on the planet. Specifically, I love, love, love these in salads and DIPS. But, for this recipe, you’ll need about 5 out of the jar. Just slice ‘em up and toss them into the bowl with all of the other ingredients.

Red Onion - Thinly slice your onion and you are in business. I prefer the red onion over others for the recipe. Plus, you can’t beat the color!

Broccoli - Cut this into tiny little florets for this salad. If the pieces are too large, it just becomes and overwhelming chunk of broccoli pasta salad instead of a pasta salad with little bits of crunchy broccoli goodness.

Mozzarella - If you can get the mozzarella pearls, they work best in this recipe. Because they are self contained cute balls of cheese, honestly. But if you can’t find the pearls, buy whatever size you can get and cut it into small bits.

Parmesan Cheese - I probably could had skipped this but it just makes the salad so much more delectable! Grated Parmesan, the powdery stuff, gives this salad just a little extra salty, Italian edge. And I love that!

Italian dressing - You’ll need a few ingredients for this including: Red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried parsley, dried oregano, dried basil and Worcestershire sauce. This dressing is so worth the 5 minutes it takes to make. But you can always use a bottle if you want!

Instructions

1. Bring a large stockpot of water to boil, then add salt and cook pasta according to package directions.

2. While the pasta cooks, chop and slice all of the vegetables and place them into a large mixing bowl.

3. Strain the pasta into the colander. Run cold water over the noodles until they are cool to the touch.

4. Shake off excess water and then add to the mixing bowl with veggies.

5. If you still need to make the dressing: Place all of the dressing ingredients into a mason jar, place lid onto the jar and shake well.

6. Pour 1/3 of dressing onto the pasta and veggies, mix well. Add more dressing if desired.

7. Shake parmesan and chopped parsley into the bowl and mix. 

8. Enjoy!