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Sun Dried Tomato Pasta Salad

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5 from 4 reviews

Loaded with PLENTY of sun dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, garbanzo beans, chopped spinach, fresh mozzarella and shaved Parmesan – this pasta salad is the stuff dreams are made of!

 

Ingredients

Units Scale

Salad:

Dressing:

Instructions

  1. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Strain and then rinse under cold water for a couple minutes. Transfer to large serving bowl.
  2. Add sun dried tomatoes, mozzarella, spinach, garbanzo beans, artichoke hearts and Parmesan to the serving bowl and mix to combine ingredients.
  3. Add oil from sun dried tomatoes to a measuring cup. Add olive oil until you have a 1/2 cup of oil total. Add oil back into the sun dried tomato jar along with red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, oregano, thyme and a large pinch of salt and pepper.
  4. Shake vigorously until emulsified.
  5. Drizzle salad with dressing and toss to coat evenly.
  6. Garnish with fresh parsley and enjoy!

Equipment

Notes

  • Always salt your pasta water! Your pasta water should be as salty as the ocean – seriously. This is going to amp up the flavor of your pasta and thus the entire salad. Cold pasta dishes can sometimes have a more muted flavor than warm pasta dishes, so this is your chance to enhance the flavor of your pasta right out of the gate.
  • No need to rinse your pasta with cold water after cooking! Toss your cooked pasta with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Set aside and allow it to cool. If you’re in a hurry, pop it in the fridge to speed up the cooling process.
  • Use the leftover oil from the sun-dried tomatoes to make the dressing for the salad. This will really infuse the salad with that sun-dried tomato flavor. I like to pour the sun-dried tomato oil into a 1/2 cup measuring cup and then add olive oil until there is a 1/2 cup total. Then add the oil back into the sun-dried tomato jar so you can get all those yummy bits of herb and sun-dried tomato mixture into the dressing.

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