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Tuscan Pasta Salad is an easy pasta salad with sun dried tomatoes, peppers spinach, and olives tossed in a tangy dressing. This pasta salad is perfect for your next potluck!
This recipe was inspired by our local market that creates delicious pasta salads. I was in the end of my pregnancy and we wanted to have our friends over for a barbecue. Because I was so uncomfortable and just weeks away from having my baby, I really didn’t want to spend a whole lot of time in preparing for a barbecue. So I bought this Tuscan Pasta Salad and it was the hit of the BBQ. I knew that I had to recreate it at home with a few of my personal touches!
This pasta salad is so simple to create but big on flavor. The original one from our local market just had peppers, sun dried tomatoes, and olives, but adding the spinach gave it an extra pop of color and was the perfect addition.
This pasta salad was perfect! It was a great change from the traditional pasta salads and was such a huge hit. The tuscan flavors came together so well in this easy to make pasta salad.
It is absolutely perfect for your next potluck or summer gathering. This salad gets tossed with the best homemade tangy dressing. I also love that it gets tossed with freshly grated parmesan cheese. Because cheese is life. Am I right?
You are going to love this recipe just as much as we did!
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Tuscan Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 16 ounces uncooked bowtie pasta
- 1 (7-ounce) jar sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
- 1 diced red bell pepper
- 1 (6.5-ounce) can sliced olives
- 1 cup spinach
- ¼ cup chopped basil
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
Dressing:
- ¾ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon dry oregano
- 1 teaspoon dry basil
- 1 clove minced garlic
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to boil over high heat. Add the 16 ounces uncooked bowtie pasta and cook until tender but slightly firm about 10 minutes. Drain and rinse the pasta in cold water.
- In a large bowl combine pasta, 1 (7-ounce) jar sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained , 1 diced red bell pepper, 1 (6.5-ounce) can sliced olives, 1 cup spinach, ¼ cup chopped basil and p½ cup grated parmesan cheese. Toss until combined.
To make the dressing
- In a small bowl whisk ¾ cup olive oil, 2 tablespoons white vinegar, 2 tablespoons water, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon dry oregano, 1 teaspoon dry basil, 1 clove minced garlic, and black pepper to taste.
- Drizzle the dressing over the pasta salad and toss until coated in the dressing. Serve
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Yum
Good Idea, thanks 🙂
Whomever is saying this is bland, add species and ingredients to your liking and customize it. I never make a recipe as it is, I always add a touch of something that I like or any creative idea I get. Be creative people ….recipe is just a template for ideas smh..
I added red onion, mozarella cheeese balls, fresh cherry tomato way more garlic to the dressing and dill mustard as.well. I love it!!! Oh and lots of lemon!
This is amazing!! Added artichoke hearts and seasoned chicken that I made in the air fryer.
whoever said to add some shredded to the bland tasting salad was right!! chicken adds flavor and appearance. I have used a balsamic vinegarette which does add some flavor. If I use the recommended salad dressing, they are usually not very good.
Pretty bland, even after adding more vinegar. Not really sure what to add to help it out a bit. Maybe some chicken? Seasoning wise tho I’m at a loss.
I found it to be quite bland too so I changed the dressing outright the next time around, and added shredded rotisserie chicken 🙂
1/4c EVOO
2tbsp balsamic vin
1/2tbsp honey
If I make this recipe the day before do I wait to add the dressing until the day I take it to a potluck.
Yes, that will be best!
What kind of olives do you recommend?
I drained a can of black olives that were already sliced.
This is my kind of salad!
This was yummy 4days old!
I love the Tuscan pasta salad from Harmon’s as well so I am looking forward to trying your recipe. I noticed that their recipe listed red wine vinegar and also dijon mustard so I am going to incorporate those in my salad. Thanks so much!
Perfect make ahead salad. Very good. Wouldn’t change a thing. Thanks for sharing the recipe
Used tortellini pasta and added mini mozzarella balls to the recipe.
I made this for dinner tonight for my parents and it was gone by the end of dinner. It is insanely delicious! I did halve the recipe because there is three of us but it is so delicious. Thank you!
Quick, easy and other than the pasta, no cooking which is what I like. I’m not a fan of changing recipes right out of the gate but I do not like homemade salad dressings. For me, too much of a vinegar taste. I know I can make adjustments but by the time I’m done, I have a gallon of salad dressing that I don’t like. So I use the bottled stuff from the grocery store. After one round with this recipe I made one change from the canned sliced olives to a Greek pitted olive mix from the olive bar at the grocery store. The one thing I learned is that the salad dressing will be absorbed by the pasta over night so be careful that you don’t go too far over the al dente for the pasta. Other than that it’s one of my favorites
I made this very simple dish for a celebration of life it was very easy to make and it was delish! I did do one other thing and that was I used the oil from the sundries tomatoes and olive oil it really boosted the flavor of the salad and everyone loved the salad! ? Thank you