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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.
I’m on a low salt diet the pasta salad looks amazing although it says 525 of sodium does that mean a serving or the whole salad I’m always on the hunt for low sodium recipes thanks
That sodium amount is per serving.
How much is a serving? Seems like a lot of sodium
1/6th of the recipe is a serving size.
this turned out to be excellent…I 1/2 the recipe using rotini because that’s what I had…wonderful to the last bit…
Yay! I’m so glad you liked it!
Did anyone make this pasta salad as is…without any changes/additions? I was going to make it for my sister’s July 4th picnic, but I’m a little leary about doing this since I’ve never made/tasted it myself. People have changed the dressing, added mozzarella balls, added salami, decreased the amount of olive oil…etc.
Hi Janet!
I’ve been making this every week since I saw this recipe! I’ve added red onion to it.
I’m thinking about adding artichoke next time! This is the absolute best pasta salad that keeps in the fridge for days! It doesn’t get gooey!
Alyssa has some of the BEST recipes! Highly recommend!
YUM~O! I just made this! It’s so delicious and I haven’t put it in the fridge!
You have the best recipes! This is a definite keeper!
Next time, I will double the sun dried tomatoes, use only 3/4 of the pasta, double the cheese and the dressing recipe I will lessen the olive oil just a little bit and will add a little more vinegar. Thank you!