This Tri Colored Pasta Salad Recipe is a quick and easy recipe that is great for picnics and potlucks! We especially love making this tri color pasta recipe when entertaining or bringing food to family and friends over the holiday.
Everyone seems to have their variation of this tri color pasta salad Italian dressing recipe. We like to use roasted red peppers, olives, and mozzarella.
Growing up we made a different salad and used various Italian meats and cheese. Now I’m older and don’t like too much meat and love mozzarella, that is when I created this delicious recipe!
For chopping, we bought our mini chef these curious chef knives. They’re AWESOME! She can’t cut herself with them at all. These are our favorite kid safe chef knives, BUT we use them too! I love using them to chop up leafy greens, especially when I want shredded lettuce for tacos.When we’re making this, I have to make extra hard boiled eggs for Kay to snack on. She loves hard boiled eggs, especially the yolks, that’s her favorite part!This is a great side dish recipe to bring to potlucks, summer parties, BBQs, or even birthday parties! We love serving it to our family and friendsMy mini chef had so much fun cutting up all the ingredients needed for this recipe.We use kid-friendly knives that are safe for her, so no chopping her fingers off. 🙂
This shot is priceless, it’s the “please dressing, don’t get all over me or the floor” look. 🙂
There are so many ways to make tri colored pasta salad recipes; they’re all delicious!
We love making cold pasta salad recipes together since it’s so easy to make. It’s a great recipe to get your Mini Chef in the kitchen for Mini Chef Mondays. 🙂
My mini chef loved making this recipe, but she loved making it even more with mommy and daddy.
We had a ton of fun making it together. It’s one of our family favorite recipes and it’s done within 20 minutes of starting. We like to let it sit in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
Tri Colored Pasta Salad Recipe
- 1 16 oz box of tri color pasta , cooked
- 8 oz mozzarella balls , cut in half
- 2 cups of olives , cut in half
- 2 roasted red peppers , cut in half (we use jarred)
- 2 cups Italian Dressing
- In a large bowl pour in the pasta.
- Add in the mozzarella, olives, red peppers, and dressing.
- Mix ingredients together and then place into the refrigerator overnight.
- Serve as desired.
LOVE Pasta Salad Recipes or just plain old Pasta Recipes? Here’s a few more!
Bowties with Parsley Garlic Butter Sauce
Easy Vegetarian Penne Pasta Recipe
Spicy Garlic Tomato Marinara Penne Pasta
The Original SNAP’N STRAIN by Kitchen Gizmo, No-hands No-Fuss Clip-On Strainer. Fits all Pot Sizes.
When we’re making pasta, I love using a strainer that doesn’t need much effort to use.
I want an effortless strainer, and this one is my go to strainer for pasta, it’s even great for vegetables and potatoes.
My sink is never empty (such is life!) so it’s not so easy to just plop the strainer into the sink when you’re mid-recipe and have a cutting board, utensils and your kid’s cereal bowl in there.
What to do? I love using a snap-on strainer so that I can strain the pasta with one hand, or even potatoes!
Psst, You’ll also love our Potato Salad with Eggs recipe too!
Joseph Joseph Updated Scoop Strainer/Colander/Slotted Spoon, Large, GreenIf you don’t like that strainer, we also love using a hand held strainer too.
Not a small one, I’m talking about the big daddy of all straining spoons.
You can nearly get all the pasta you’re cooking in one quick scoop if it’s a medium amount. When I’m doing a large recipe, I can just scoop whatever I need and place it into the dish.
This handheld colander is great for when I just want to place my pasta right into the homemade marinara sauce.
It goes right into the sauce without having to drain over the sink since you’re just draining the water right then when you scoop it up.
I also do this with vegetables or anything that needs straining.
I am hosting Mini Chef Mondays along with 4 fabulous bloggers, find out more about the Mini Chef Mondays Team!
Join our facebook group to find even more recipes and share your own recipes!
Be sure to check out each of their Mini Chef posts as well!
- Shamrock Smoothie Bowl // Finding Zest
- Fruity Pebbles Dessert Parfait Recipe // Eating Richly
- Creamy Mushroom Soup // Vegging at the Shore
- Cinnamon Roll Cookies // My Mini Adventurer
I’ve had a similar salad at family potlucks before (only difference is they usually have pepperoni as well and are called pizza pasta salad. Looks. Great for a picnic or cookout!! Nice
Sounds delicious!! Pizza pasta, sign me up! 🙂 My family (Italian) growing up also used Pepperoni, Salami, and various cheeses! We love pasta salads! This one is a great option for our vegetarian friends.