This light and tangy summer spaghetti salad is the perfect pasta side dish for cookouts and potlucks. Tender spaghetti strands are tossed with garden fresh veggies, like cucumbers, tomatoes, and green peppers, then coated with zesty Italian dressing.

This palate-pleasing dish is a refreshing accompaniment to BBQ chicken, pulled pork sandwiches, and cedar plank salmon, but it also makes a delicious lunch all on its own!

Served cold, summer spaghetti salad goes well with grilled burgers, brats, chicken, and more!

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What Is Summer Spaghetti Salad?

Summer spaghetti salad is a cold pasta dish that incorporates spaghetti with a variety of raw vegetables, then tossed with Italian dressing. While vinaigrette pasta salads abound today, they are a relatively new class of dish that didn’t hit the mainstream until the 1980s.

Before then, the mayonnaise-based macaroni salad was the only cold pasta salad commonly be found in delis across the US. And even it is a new dish, as far as food historians are concerned.

While there are mentions of macaroni salad dating back to the early 1900s, it didn’t really take off until the mid-1950s. But unfortunately, there was little variety. Macaroni salad was macaroni salad, and that was that.

Nowadays there are pasta salads of all types incorporating a diverse assortment of ingredients, from salmon to tofu. Dressings range from vinegar to fruity, and they are served hot, cold, and in between.

But personally, I think that THIS cold spaghetti salad is the best of them all!

Fresh veggies and cold spaghetti are tossed in Italian dressing.

Can I Make Ingredient Substitutions?

The best thing about summer spaghetti salad, besides the taste, is how versatile it is. You can omit, add or substitute ingredients easily. And by changing the dressing you use, you can totally change the flavor of the dish!

Additional or Substitute Ingredient Suggestions

Sliced and quartered zucchini
Shredded carrots
Chopped red bell pepper
Chopped broccoli florets
Sliced green onion
Cubed or shredded mild cheddar, mozzarella, or colby jack cheese
Shredded chicken
Slivered almonds

Change this salad by changing the veggies and dressing you use.

Can I Make This Ahead?

Yes, I do it all the time! It also travels well, so you can tote it to potlucks with great results.

The key having a great made-ahead pasta salad is to cook the pasta to al dente. As the noodles marinate in the dressing, they soak up additional moisture. If your pasta is overcooked to begin with, you’ll have a sloppy mess by morning.

When the pasta is al dente, it still soaks up the dressing but it results in plump noodles. When this happens, though, the salad will be drier than you might like it to be. Just add more dressing about five minutes before serving and it’ll be perfect!

Directions

Prepare spaghetti per package instructions until strands are cooked to al dente. Drain into a colander and rinse with cold water. Shake to remove excess water, then pour spaghetti into a large mixing bowl.
Prepare vegetables. Dice red onion and green pepper, slice and quarter cucumbers, halve grape tomatoes (or dice full-sized tomatoes, if using), drain olives, and cut basil into slivers. Add to spaghetti and toss to combine.
Add grated Parmesan cheese and Italian dressing to spaghetti-vegetable mixture. Toss well to coat noodles with dressing.
Chill, covered. Toss before serving. More Italian dressing may be added just before serving if it needs a little more moisture.

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