The Best Summer Spaghetti Salad

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!

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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!

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

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!

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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.

Looking for More Easy Side Dishes?

• Try a light spin on a classic with Dill Potato Salad
• Snickers Taffy Apple Salad is the sweetest side of the season
• Short on time? Try 5 Minute Caprese Salad

The Best Summer Spaghetti Salad

Recipe by Chicken Soup with DumplingsCourse: Salads, SidesDifficulty: Easy

Servings

10

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

Total time

35

minutes

This light and tangy summer spaghetti salad is the perfect pasta side dish for cookouts and potlucks.

Ingredients

• 16 oz spaghetti

• 1/2 cup finely diced red onion

• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved (or 1 cup diced tomatoes)

• 1 medium cucumber, peeled, sliced, and quartered (about 1 cup)

• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper

• 1- 2.25 oz can sliced black olives

• 1/4 cup fresh basil, snipped into shreds

• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

• 1 cup Italian dressing

Directions

• Prepare spaghetti per package instructions until spaghetti strands are al dente. Drain into a colander and rinse with cold water. Shake to remove excess water, then pour spaghetti into a large mixing bowl.
• As spaghetti cooks, 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 vegetables to spaghetti. 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.

Notes

• You can make this up to a day ahead of time. Cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to serve. Toss before serving. More Italian dressing can be added just before serving if spaghetti seems dry.

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Chicken Soup with Dumplings

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