Rainbow Antipasto Pasta Salad (2024)

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I don’t know about you, but whenever Icreatean antipasto platter for a gathering, I tend to get a weeee bit overzealous with my spread of ingredients. I want to includeso manycheeses! So many olives! So many peppers! So many meats!

Which alwaysmeans that afterwards, I’m left with…

…so many leftovers.

(Please tell me I’m not the only one with this delicious problem…!)

Well,for any of you other antipasto-lovers who might be looking for a way to make good use of leftover ingredients, today I have the perfect recipe to share with you. It’s this colorful antipasto pasta salad Or as a clever reader on Facebook suggested I call it, antipasta salad. (<–So punny!)

It’s incredibly quick and easy to make, since I’m guessing most of those antipasto ingredients you have are already in bite-sized pieces. It’s incredibly flavorful, with the perfect mixture of sweet and savory and spicy ingredients added to the pasta, plus a simple Italian herbvinaigrette. It’s incredibly customizable, so feel free to substitute in any of your favorite antipasto ingredients that you have on hand. And I must say that I’m especially excited about the fact that it’s incredibly colorful, and will definitely steal the show if you bring it along to a potluck, or just pop it right in the middle of your dinner table at home.

So grab your rainbow of ingredients, and let’s make some.

Simply cook up a batch of your favorite pasta (I went with some tri-color rotini), then rinse it quickly in some cold water to stop the cooking process.

Then while the pasta is cooking, go ahead and chop up whatever antipastoingredients that you might have on hand. (I used salami, diced cheese, cherry tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts, pepperoncini, roasted red peppers, then I also added some leftover kale and red onion to the mix.)

Add everything together in a bowl with your cooked pasta.

And then drizzle on a simple Italian herb red wine vinaigrette. I made mine with this adorable new little Italian Blend Herb Grinder from McCormick, which I’m obsessed with because you allknow how often I use Italian seasoning and this makes it all the more fun getting to grind it myself. (They also have Basil, Oregano, and Parsley herb grinders available now — check ’em out!) Then I mixed the Italian seasoning with some extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and a little bit of garlic powder to make a quick vinaigrette, and then drizzled it all over the pasta salad.

(Actually — pro tip here — to soften the kale, I actually addedthe kale and a few tablespoons of the vinaigrette to the kalefirst. Then I massaged it with my hands for a minute, which makes the kale nice and dark green and soft and delish. Then I added the other ingredients.)

Then I gaveeverything a good toss.

And voila! This beautiful rainbow of deliciousness was ready to serve.

I absolutely loved it. And all of the antipasto flavorsnaturally tied together perfectly, especially when tied together with that simple vinaigrette. All the more incentive to make more antipasto platters when they can be followed up by an equally delicious antipasto pasta salad like this one.

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