Creamy Pesto Pasta Salad
Creamy pesto pasta salad is a tri-color rotini pasta salad that is easy to make for a crowd of 25 to 50 people.
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Calories: 227kcal
Servings:
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.
Notes
As written, this recipe makes 25 servings as a side salad. If serving as a main dish, this recipe yields 14 servings.
One head of broccoli yields 3-4 cups florets and weighs about 9 ounces.
If making more servings of this recipe (i.e. with more than 2 pints grape tomatoes), I don't halve the tomatoes. I just leave them whole.
Note that the equipment recommendations are just recommendations. Extra-large or commercial-sized equipment is not required for batch cooking.
Nutrition
Calories: 227kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 13mg | Sodium: 513mg | Potassium: 145mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 2g