Easy California Pasta Salad with Homemade Italian Dressing
A simple California pasta salad that you can toss together in no time! Loaded with black olives, green and red bell peppers, diced tomatoes, onions, and parmesan cheese. Drizzled with a quick and easy homemade Italian dressing.
Servings: 8
Calories: 406kcal
Ingredients
Salad:
- 1 pound fusilli or rotini pasta
- 1 green bell pepper diced
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 1 medium red onion diced
- 2 (2.25 ounce) sliced black olives drained
- 2 Roma tomatoes chopped
- ⅓ cup grated parmesan cheese
Roasted Garlic Italian Dressing:
- ¼ cup white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2-3 tablespoon water
- 12-14 cloves roasted garlic see notes
Instructions
- SALAD: Cook the pasta according to package direction, drain and allow to cool to room temperature. Combine all the ingredients (except the parm) for the salad in a large bowl and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes while you prepare the dressing.
- DRESSING: Place the ingredients for the dressing in a blender along with a big pinch of salt and pepper and blend until smooth (or add to a jar if using an immersion blender.) Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.
- ASSEMBLE: At this point, you can refrigerate the dressing until ready to serve as well or toss the pasta salad with dressing and top with parmesan cheese and serve! If you’re taking this to a party, I suggest keeping the salad and dressing separate until ready to serve.
Notes
- I purchased roasted garlic from the deli section of my grocery store. Feel free to roast your own garlic too if you'd like!
Nutrition
Calories: 406kcal | Carbohydrates: 50g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 19g | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 5g
