Everybody knows that Summertime means pasta salad time. It’s just a given! Although, you really only see people mimicking the same kind of Italian pasta salads. The traditional one is filled with cubed salami, pepperoni, cheddar cheese, broccoli, bell peppers, and onions. Then it is normally doused with a tangy, oily Italian dressing. Now, don’t get me wrong Diamonds, I’m in love with that version of pasta salad as well, but if you know me you know I love changing up a regular routine! Taking two different dishes that I adore and putting them into one marvelous mash-up is my speciality!!
This chef salad pasta salad has everything in it that a chef salad would normally have, but instead of the lettuce; I just tossed in beautiful bow tie noodles!
Let me show you Diamonds how I created this pretty pasta salad:
You obviously cannot have pasta salad without pasta itself! Boil one pound of farfalle pasta for 8-9 minutes while you cut up all of the other ingredients. Then once they’re cooked to al dente make sure you rinse them in cold water to stop them from cooking any further.
At the deli at your local grocery store order your favorite lunch meat brand of ham and turkey for this particular pasta salad. Since the meat and cheese is a big star of this show you definitely don’t want to cheap yourself out with product you don’t necessarily love! Get the good stuff. I promise you spending the extra couple dollars is well worth it!
- Cube up three pieces of turkey breast a half inch thick.
- Cube up one big piece of ham off the bone. Don’t ask for cooked ham. It has to be “off the bone”.
- Cube an entire block of Colby jack cheese.
- Cube a half block of applewood smoked cheddar cheese.
- Then, medium dice an entire red bell pepper.
- Lastly, add an entire can of sliced black olives. They need to be black in my opinion, but of course if you prefer a different kind you could replace it for whatever you’d like.
- You Diamonds can definitely add 3-4 chopped hard boiled eggs in when you recreate this recipe as well, but they’re my dads worst nightmare so I chose to leave them out!
Diamonds I have to tell you.. I’ve came up with many different dressings in my life, but this one right there is my new favorite! It is delicious and just absolutely perfect for this specific salad!
Dressing ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups of mayo
- 3/4 cups of sour cream
- Half of a bottle of your favorite Italian dressing.
- Sea salt freshly cracked black pepper, garlic and onion powder to taste.
- Finally, mix in a bunch of freshly chopped chives and parsley. I really think fresh herbs take summer salads to a brand new level.
Pour half of the dressing in with all of the other ingredients and mix gently. Then, toss in the cooled pasta along with the rest of the dressing. Besides the fresh herbs that I mixed into the dressing itself, i also added more of both in right before I gave everything a good mix at the end.
Before even cutting the herbs to add into the salad please make sure that they are washed and completely dried off. I cannot stress that enough. Cutting herbs that are not fully dried and have a lot of moisture attached to them will almost change the taste and even the smell. The cutting process will not be a fun one, either.
Herbs make summer dishes POP!
Once everything has come completely together in the mixing bowl, you can then transfer the entire salad into a sleek serving bowl.
Your family and friends will totally fall in love with with this pasta salad, especially if they’re into chef salads as much as I am! This is fantastic to take to potlucks, picnics, and every kind of Summertime party that’s imaginable. It’s cool, refreshing, creamy, and honestly it is just gorgeous! Today is a wonderful day to build a big bowl of this and go out on your lounge chair next to the pool and just have yourself an afternoon!
Deepfrieddiamonds 
A meal in itself. The dressing looks delicious 😋
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Thanks so much! It really is like it’s own little meal isn’t it?! But the dressing yes it is delicious! You have to give it a try!!
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