Bow tie pasta is great for using in pasta salads because the little nooks and crannies in the pasta are able to grasp on to the flavors that have been added to the salad. Since the ratio of pasta to other ingredients is quite fair, every bite will have a bit of cheese or a vegetable attached to it. This bow tie pasta salad is one of the best pasta salad recipes you’ll ever eat. This recipe comes from an older cookbook called, The Family Flavor cookbook. It’s a cookbook filled with 125 recipes for families looking for new and easy recipes to make for all meals of the day. There is a photograph for every recipe, and it’s focused on using normal, easy-to-find ingredients.
Ingredients needed:
pasta cucumber, bell pepper, green onion, tomato and fresh parsley black olives red wine vinegar lemon juice honey olive oil feta cheese salt/pepper
How to make Bow Tie Pasta Salad:
The base of this pasta salad is perfect- all fresh ingredients. Cooked pasta, tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, green onion and olives. These are all great, mainstay add-ins for a good pasta salad.
About the pasta:
I think bow tie pasta is pretty for a pasta salad. Alternatives that are also good for pasta salad are rotini or penne. Spaghetti also makes a fun pasta salad!
Isn’t it pretty? This salad is a great salad to bring to a potluck since it displays so nicely. Forget store-bought pasta salad that is so goopy with too much dressing. This one will be so much better!
The vinaigrette:
The vinaigrette is a simple mix of red wine vinegar, freshly squeezed lemon juice, honey, olive oil, freshly chopped parsley and honey. A lot of pasta salads out there instruct you to dump a bottle of Italian dressing onto your pasta salad. That’s fine for a quick fix, but making it homemade will be so much better- fresh, more flavor and no strange ingredients. This is a flavorful vinaigrette. Don’t worry about the amount of oil that is called for- pasta salads need oil. The vinaigrette to pasta ratio in this recipe is just right.
Crumbled feta cheese is added in after the pasta salad is tossed with the dressing. This is the best way to do it because it will be much easier for the feta to stick to the pasta when it’s already coated with the vinaigrette.
My family is pretty crazy about this pasta salad. My husband explains that it doesn’t taste “store bought.” It’s more like the kind of pasta salad you might have served with your sandwich at a really nice deli.
Gluten-free option:
This salad can be made with regular pasta or gluten-free pasta. It’s recommended that you undercook the pasta “slightly” because it will soften up when the vinaigrette is added to it.
The leftovers keep well for several days in a tightly covered container. Enjoy!
Here are a few more pasta salad recipes you might like to try:
Pizza Pasta Salad Summer Vegetable Pasta Salad Greek Pasta Salad Italian Pasta Salad Chicken Pasta Salad Summer Italian Spaghetti Salad Greek Tortellini Salad
