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How to make pasta salad
How to make pasta salad is not rocket science. You cook the pasta, then cool it to room temperature, blend in fresh ingredients such as cherry tomatoes, asparagus tips, sweet red peppers and so on, avoid overwhelming it with too many seasonings, and choose a suitable dressing. Then serve it room temperature or slightly warm, to accentuate the flavors. I provide tips on each of my pasta salad recipe pages but I've gathered the key points on how to make pasta salad here for easy reference.
There are six steps to how to make pasta salad turn out great.
Step 1: Choose the right type of pasta
Choose a pasta that has the right size for the other ingredients. For example, on my Orzo salad recipes page, the salad uses orzo, a pasta that is the size and shape of rice grains, and the vegetables that go with it are cut fairly small, while my tortellini pasta salad recipe uses tortellini that are just under an inch diameter, along with olives and cherry tomatoes, both of which are similar sized. An apricot pasta salad works with penne and slivers of dried apricot cut roughly to the size of the penne - and so on. That's one of the keys of how to make pasta salad have the right texture - size matters.
Step 2. Choose fresh ingredients
Use the freshest possible ingredients for your vegetables and herbs. The best time of year for how to make pasta salad is in the late spring and summer, when you can buy all sorts of wonderful vegetables at local farmers markets. We have one a few blocks from us where we can buy heirloom tomatoes, asparagus picked that very morning, baby potatoes that cook in no time at all, and a wide assortment of herbs. Remember to store your vegetables in a way that maintains their freshness between the day you buy and the day you toss the salad. That means, for example, storing asparagus by wrapping the base of the stalks in a damp paper towel and storing in a plastic bag in the coldest part of your refrigerator; storing tomatoes in the open air (not refrigereated, which destroys their flavor); storing potatoes in the dark in a paper bag; and storing most other types of vegetables in the crisper drawer (leafy ones especially in plastic bags to keep them from drying out).
In Toronto we're also lucky to have many greengrocers - a rarity in many US cities or smaller towns in both the US and Canada - so we can get fresh local or imported produce for our pasta salads any day of the week, without having to resort to the supermarket blandness that so often turns a pretty pasta salad into an utterly flavorless one.
When thinking about how to make pasta salad don't limit yourself to all fresh ingredients. Olives and artichoke hearts are both great ingredients for pasta salads, and sometimes a tablespoon of frozen pesto can work wonders in a pasta salad. But strive for mostly fresh ingredients.
Step 3. Cook the pasta right
One of the keys for how to make pasta salad just right is to cook the pasta properly. Here are some common mistakes people make when cooking pasta for pasta salad. First, they overcook it. Second, they don't toss it with olive oil as soon as it's drained, so it sticks together in a gluey mass. Third, they refrigerate it for several days, which slowly transforms its texture into something pasty and stiff.
To cook the pasta right you need to (1) bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, (2) toss in the pasta and stir vigorously at first, then occasionally, to keep it from sticking together or to the bottom of the pot, (3) taste it frequently for firmness (most dry pastas cook in 6 to 9 minutes) and drain it when the pasta is soft but still offers a little resistance when you bite into it - that's called 'al dente' which in Italian means 'to the tooth', (4) drain it and spray it with cold water to cool it quickly, (5) put it in a bowl and toss with olive oil to keep it from sticking together, and (6) use it the same day if possible, and if you do refrigerate it for later use, do so for as short a time as possible and let it come to room temperature before blending with other ingredients, by pulling it out of the refridgerator an hour or two before serving.
Step 4. Keep it simple - salad!
One thing you have to resist when thinking how to make pasta salad is the tendency to shove dozens of ingredients - each of which goes well in a pasta salad - all into the same pasta salad. Naturally this is a recipe for so much complexity that nothing stands out. One vegetable along with the pasta is rarely enough; two is better, and three is getting towards optimum. But don't keep on counting up from there. Once you hit eight or nine different flavors you are going to underwhelm your diners, who won't be able to enjoy any of the flavors on their own. Occasionally you find a salad recipe where a dozen ingredients blend wonderfully, but if you're composing your own salad creation, there's a good chance that using many ingredients will not produce that perfect blend. Keep it simple - salads taste better simpler.
The same applies to the herbs you use. It's best to stick to a small number of complex herbs. Fresh basil is great, and diced green onions are great, and chopped Italian parsely is great, but not all three at once! And don't throw in every dried herb in your spice rack when making the seasoning - one or two at most!
Step 5. Dress for success
Choose a subtle dressing, not something overwhelming. Remember that pasta is starchy, and mixing a pasta salad with a creamy dressing or one with cheese (e.g. bleu chese dressing) is going to make the pasta salad sit like a lump in your diners' tummies. I find an oil and vinegar or oil and lemon juice dressing works best, and if using vinegar I tend to favor white wine or cider vinegar for how to make pasta salad, because red wine and balsamic vinegar (which are my favorites in terms of flavor) are unfortunately dark and can discolor the pasta.
Of course, if you're making something like a caesar pasta salad, you'll have a rich dressing, but the starchiness of the pasta is offset by an entire head of romaine lettuce. Filling without being overly heavy.
Step 6. Serve it like Baby Bear likes it
If you want to know how to make pasta salad taste just right, temperature is key. Serve it like Baby Bear likes it - neither too cold, nor too hot. Pasta salads are especially great in summer, when there's lots of fresh local produce around and it's hot enough out that people aren't keen on piping hot pasta in a bowl for dinner. But if you serve it straight from the refrigerator, the coldness will make it hard for your tastebuds to detect all the subtle flavors. Room temperature, or warm, pasta salads are best.
If you are preparing the ingredients beforehand, refrigerate them for all but the last hour before assembling the pasta salad. There is no need to refrigerate the salad once it is assembled, as long as it is served within another hour. (The exception is any salad dressing containing raw egg in a homemade dressing: the dressing should be kept refrigerated, and should not be tossed into the pasta salad until right before serving.)
It's not complicated
How to make pasta salad is really not all that complicated. I've probably thrown together a hundred pasta salads without a recipe; following the above steps helps me ensure the pasta salad is tasty and pleases a wide range of diners (from fussy toddlers to fussy grown ups). One of the great things about a pasta salad is that you can make an entire meal out of one dish. And if you make enough of it, a pasta salad is the meal that keeps on giving!
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