My pasta salad with Italian dressing recipe is just one way that you too can take a real lunch. Fuel your mind and body with fresh ingredients quickly and easily. My pepper jack pasta salad will allow you to do just that. It makes the perfect lunch all on its own plus it is super simple to prepare. You can also serve it with something like a grilled cheese sandwich to really take it over the top.
Pasta Salad with Italian Dressing
Grab some simple ingredients to mix up this pasta salad in no time at all. For me, the pepper jack cheese really takes this one over the top. If you don’t like things quite as spicy, try adding a sharp cheddar instead. You can also mix up the ingredients themselves as this recipe is super versatile. I am listing my favorite ingredients to add if I have them on hand.
Ingredients:
- 12 oz box of tri-colored rotini or any other tri-colored pasta
- 1/2 medium-sized cucumber seeded and diced
- 1/2 medium bell pepper seeded and diced
- 8 Roma tomatoes cut into a large dice
- 14 oz can artichoke hearts drained and chopped
- 2 oz canned sliced green olives drained
- 4 oz can diced pimentos drained
- 1/2 cup zesty Italian dressing
- 1/2 cup ranch dressing
- 6 slices pepper jack cheese
How to Make This Pasta Salad Recipe:
Now that you have your ingredients, you can mix up this recipe in no time at all. Seriously, if you can boil water, you can make this pasta salad with Italian dressing. Want to serve this as the main dish? Add in some protein like grilled chicken or even cooked shrimp.
Ingredients
- 12 oz box of tri colored rotini or any other tri colored pasta
- 1/2 medium sized cucumber seeded and diced
- 1/2 medium bell pepper seeded and diced
- 8 Roma tomatoes cut into a large dice
- 14 oz can artichoke hearts drained and chopped
- 2 oz canned sliced green olives drained
- 4 oz can diced pimentos drained
- 1/2 cup zesty italian dressing
- 1/2 cup ranch dressing
- 6 slices pepper jack cheese
Instructions
- Cook rotini (or other pasta) according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water.
- While your pasta is cooling, dice your cucumber, bell pepper, Roma tomatoes, and artichoke hearts. NOTE: It is important to seed your cucumber with a spoon before dicing. The seeds will make your pasta salad watery. Add chopped ingredients to a large bowl.
- Add olives and pimentoes to your bowl. All canned ingredients should be drained before being added.
- Add your italian and ranch dressings to the bowl and mix to combine.
- Add rotini and toss to coat.
- Tear in the 6 slices of Sargento Ultra Thin Pepper Jack Cheese. Tear each slice into various sized pieces. Toss your salad to combine.
- Serve immediately or chill.
Notes
You can change up this recipe with a variety of fresh ingredients. I used what was fresh in my garden that day. Some suggestions would be to add celery, green onions, spinach leaves, black olives, or any number of your favorite ingredients. You can also change up the pasta for bread and make Panzanella.
Maybe try another variety of cheese to change things up as well. You can try flavors such as medium cheddar, swiss, provolone, or cheddar-mozzarella. The best part of this? You can vary this pasta salad recipe up week after week for a fresh alternative to lunch that you won’t get bored with.
Take a real lunch this week and make my pasta salad with Italian dressing. If you have the opportunity, I would also recommend serving your lunch on your “fancy” plates occasionally. They will make you feel like a rock star dining at a fine restaurant. Who doesn’t want to feel like a rock star right? Plus they are just sitting in your cabinet anyway! Grab them and make the most of your lunch!
Make my pepper jack pasta salad recipe this week. Either make my version or change it up for your own tastes. Either way, take some time and feed yourself a great lunch made with fresh ingredients. Let’s all take back our lunch hour and do something good for ourselves with this pasta salad with Italian dressing!
Love this pasta salad with cheese recipe and want more? Try the links below as well!
This recipe looks awesome!! Our family only buys Sargent…makes such a difference. Their string cheese is by far the best!!
We love cheese and this looks delicious! Gotta try it!!
We love cheese and this looks delicious! Gotta try it!!
Yumyum, sounds and looks so good. This would be a great supper for hubs and I. We’re not into eating too much at a time, guess it’s something that happens with appetite and getting older. I’d make a smaller batch but am going to make it. Payday is tomorrow and we’d love something little different for our suppers. We eat a great deal of one pot meals so this would work fantastically. Sure glad you shared this post. We both love almost everything that you put into yours. Happy week
That looks delicious Angie! Pinning this for sure!
I love Sargento cheeses ~ this recipe sounds and looks delicious!
Sargento cheese is so yummy! What a healthy and filling pasta salad! Yum!
Wow this looks so good Angie! We love pepper jack cheese, I’m printing this out to make soon. Thanks for the recipe!