Creamy Pesto Pasta Salad
This recipe delivers creamy pesto pasta salad for a crowd! This beautiful tri-color rotini pasta salad has pesto dressing and crunchy veggies and is easy to make for 25 to 50 people. Make in advance for easy preparation and stress-free quantity cooking. This salad is especially perfect for a potluck, summer barbecue, or garden party.
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About this recipe
My creamy pesto pasta salad has all straight-forward ingredients that are easy to find and affordable. Also, the flavors here are crowd-pleasing favorites: tender pasta, creamy dressing, and crunchy veggies.
I have this recipe written as a side salad, but you can easily add cooked chicken or diced ham to transform this into a main dish salad as well.
About the ingredients
All the ingredients are listed in the recipe card below, but here are just a couple extra notes.
I used green bell pepper, grape tomatoes, red onion, and broccoli as the veggies, but these can be changed up to whatever is fresh and available to you.
For the broccoli, use fresh broccoli rather than frozen. By adding the broccoli to the boiling water for the last minute of the pasta cooking, we are able to cook the broccoli (but not overcook) in the same pot!
Whereas most pasta comes in 16-ounce (1-pound) boxes, for some reason tri-color pasta comes in a 12-ounce box. So, just be aware that if you use a different pasta (such as macaroni or regular rotini), the box will be 16 ounces rather than 12 ounces.
Country-style Dijon mustard is a variety that is a mixture of Dijon and whole grain mustard. If not available, simply substitute the 1/4 cup country-style Dijon mustard with 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard plus 2 Tablespoons whole grain mustard.
Note that this recipe uses white wine vinegar which is less assertive than regular white vinegar.
FAQs
Yes. Diced ham or cubed cooked chicken would be lovely in this salad.
Yes. This recipe can be made a day in advance.
Yes. I recommend using a good GF pasta, like Ronzoni or Barilla. I do not recommend using a chickpea or veggie-based GF pasta for this salad because they can turn gummy. Otherwise, proceed with the recipe as written.
Need a meal idea? Serve creamy pesto pasta salad with Deviled Egg Sandwiches for a lovely lunch!
Creamy Pesto Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 24 oz tri-color rotini pasta
- 2 heads broccoli cut into florets (see Notes)
- 2 large green bell peppers diced
- 2 pints grape tomatoes halved (see Notes)
- 1 red onion diced
For the pesto salad dressing
- 2 cups mayonnaise
- 1/4 cup country-style Dijon mustard
- 1 cup prepared pesto
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
Instructions
Cook the pasta and blanch the broccoli
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
- Add the pasta to the boiling water. Set timer to cook 1 minute past al dente (reference package directions for cook time).
- When there is 1 minute left for the pasta to cook, add the broccoli florets to the boiling water with the cooking pasta.
- Drain the pasta and broccoli and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking. Drain well.
Make the pesto salad dressing
- In a bowl, whisk together the ingredients for the pesto salad dressing.
Assemble the salad
- In an extra large bowl or hotel pan, toss together the pasta, broccoli, bell pepper, tomatoes, onion, and pesto salad dressing.
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving.
We loved this salad so much and I am excited to share it with you. As always, I am happy to answer any questions!