How To Make Zesty Italian Dressing Pasta Salad - Classic Italian Pasta Salad Recipe

Hey folks , Philly boy J here and today I am going to show you guys how I make my Italian dressing pasta salad .

So let's talk about the ingredients that you're going to need .

You're going to need tri color rotini noodles .

You can use regular rotini noodles .

If you want , you're going to need salt for the pasta , seasonings and grated Parmesan cheese .

I love to use grated Parmesan cheese and Italian pasta salad .

Feel free to use fresh Parmesan cheese or whatever kind of cheese you want .

And you're obviously going to need the main ingredient , which is the Italian dressing .

I'm using Zeti Italian dressing .

You're also going to need some more ingredients , stuff , vegetables .

So make sure you have fresh broccoli slice , the black olives that come in the can .

You can find that at your local supermarket .

You going to need tomatoes .

I'm using grape tomatoes .

You're going to need a cucumber and a red onion .

So make sure you have all those ingredients .

You're going to need them for this recipe .

The first step and thing that you're going to do is get a large size pot .

You're going to fill it with cold water and then you're going to add the salt .

Look at me actually stirring the salt in .

You're gonna place the pot of water over high heat .

And right before it comes to a rolling boil , you're gonna add the pasta and stir it in .

Really ?

Well , you don't wanna add the pasta when it comes to a rolling burger because that hot water gonna pop all over the place and you don't want that .

Ok ?

So give the pasta a nice stir and you're only going to boil you it until it's al dente for about 10 minutes .

Then you're going to remove it and you're going to drain the water and make sure you remove it from that hot water immediately .

Or else you gonna have some bloated fat , soggy pasta and you did not want that .

That happened to me one time I was making some salad , boiled the pasta , cut it off and left it in a pot of hot water on the phone talking to the homie about sports and that pasta was so soggy .

It was a hot mess .

So give it a nice rinse and remove it immediately .

You rinse it to speed up the cooling process .

Don't nobody got time to wait half an hour for pasta to cool off and that stops it from continuing to cook .

Now , what you're gonna do is you're gonna remove the skin from your cucumber .

They're gonna slice the cucumber in half .

I didn't show that on camera .

My fault .

I'm so sorry .

And you're going to remove the seeds .

If you like the seeds , you can leave them in .

I don't , so I'm going to discard them .

You're gonna turn the cucumber over and you're gonna slice it three times into four skinny sticks .

So slice it , lift wise three times and then slice it , whip wise into whatever side shapes you like your cucumbers .

OK ?

So slice and chop those cucumbers up and then you're going to place them in a bowl , get them off the cutting board because we gotta make room for the Brocco egg , the broccoli and the onions .

So with the broccoli , what you're going to do is remove the stalk .

That's that big piece right there .

Remove the stalk just like that .

That's a big stop there .

Mm Then what you're going to do is you're gonna break the broccoli pieces into broccoli florets that broccoli looks so nice and fresh and green .

Mm And then you're going to slice the branch or stalk again .

What do they actually call them ?

A branch ?

A stalk .

A stem is all the same right ?

Then you're going to slice the broccoli in half .

You want them to be as small as possible , but make sure you remove the stalk .

Last thing you want to do is bite into solid and have to chew on those tough stalks .

You don't want that , then you're going to slice the onion .

I'm going to be using a red onion , as I said earlier in the video .

And the reason that I use a red onion is for decoration purposes , I'm superficial and I want my salad to look nice and colorful and pretty .

But you can use whatever onion you have on hand is no big deal .

So slice your onion into small pieces like that there and then you're going to slice your grape tomatoes into small pieces as well .

I usually slice them into pieces of three , but I'm just slicing them in half the day .

So slice them up like that .

And that's pretty much it .

Guys , you're done with the chopping , peeling and slicing process of the vegetables .

Now it's time to combine everything .

This is the fun part .

So make sure you have your dressing , your chopped vegetables , your seasonings and your grated Parmesan cheese .

So , what you're gonna do is you're gonna get your dressing and you're gonna add the seasoning to it .

You guys know whenever I make salad , I always add the seasoning to the dressing just to make sure that the seasoning is spread all throughout the salad , then you're gonna add a little of the Parmesan cheese .

Save the rest for the top .

Now , I was only working with a spoon on this particular day .

I want you guys to use a whisk .

Ok , so whisk everything in really well , make sure it's well blended because if you don't use a whisk , you're gonna be left with little lumps like that .

But it don't matter because I'm gonna get them lumps out just like that .

So I got them on out of there .

Now , you're going to add your chopped vegetables .

Your broccoli , black olives , grape tomatoes , red onions , cucumbers .

Did I miss anything ?

Well , did I say anything twice ?

I don't know .

It don't matter .

Just add all your vegetables to the dressing and stir it in .

Make sure they're fully coated and saturated in that Italian dressing and look at that .

It just looks so colorful .

All those colors look like spring time .

And this is what I love about Italian dressing .

Pasta salad is there's no limit to how many vegetables you can use .

You can add whatever vegetables you like .

So feel free to customize this recipe to your liking .

But yeah , this , this salad is just so versatile , so versatile .

You can add blocks of cheese , little pieces of pepperoni .

You can add anything to it , not anything but anything .

You know what I mean ?

Now you're gonna add the pasta and that's the last step .

Give it a nice stir .

Make sure everything is well blended very nicely .

Yeah .

Stirred in really well , just like that .

And there you have your Italian dressing pasta salad .

Guys .

This pasta salad is amazing .

It is absolutely delicious .

So I want you guys to give it a shot , take it to your family barbecue , cook out a party or an event where you think you may want to bring a salad to and you are going to enjoy it .

I'm going to transfer the salad from the mixing bowl to the serve and bowl just like that for the full recipe visit Philly J cooking dot com .

Ok .

There you'll find the exact measurements , detailed instructions and any additional information you need to know regarding this Italian dressing pasta salad recipe later .