For this week’s Tried & True, I am sharing a pasta salad I have been making for over twenty years. This salad is loaded with feta, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and topped with my favorite sweet balsamic dressing- such a great combination of flavors! So simple. So good.
This pasta salad is great topped with grilled chicken for a meal – a summer favorite! This is also one of my go-to dishes for barbecues, picnics, parties and large gatherings. This pasta gets a lot of shares! I’m glad to finally be adding it to my recipe box on Sweet Little Bluebird!
Pasta Salad with a Twist
Ingredients
- 1 box Gemelli Pasta (1 lb) cooked according to package (or your favorite pasta – penne, twist, bow tie)
- 8 oz Feta, crumbled
- 1 large Cucumber, peeled, cut bite size
- 1 pint Cherry or Grape Tomatoes (sliced in halves or quarters)
- 1/2 cup Red Onion, chopped
Sweet Balsamic Dressing:
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil or Canola
- 1/3 cup Sugar
- 3 tablespoons good Balsamic Vinegar
- 1/8 teaspoon Dry Mustard (or a little squeeze of yellow mustard)
- Few twists of Fresh Cracked Pepper Or use 1/8 tsp of Reg Ground Pepper
Whisk all the ingredients together, until sugar and oil are blended. It takes a few minutes for the oil and sugar to blend. Keep whisking….it will blend!
Directions
Make pasta according to package, rinse in colander with cold water, drain. Top with feta and veggies. If you plan to serve the entire salad at once, top with desired amount of dressing and toss. If you plan to have the salad over a few days, top with dressing individually.
Tips
- This salad is great with Greek and Italian dressing too.
- Adjust the amount of feta and veggies to your preference.
- Great topped with fresh cracked pepper.
- You can use other types of pasta – penne, rotini, bow-tie…
- Make a meal out of it, top the pasta with grilled chicken!
ENJOY!
Thank you so much for stopping by!
Cheers!
Oh my goodness this looks so great!! I absolutely adore this dressing recipe, it would be great on so many salads, but will definitely have to try this!
I love pasta salad!!! This one looks so good. We are camping soon, I might have to bring this along.
Mary this looks awesome,…but it's the dressing that I want to make!! Oh my gosh, I love basalmic vinegar!
oh yum mary you have me dreaming of Summer!!