Easy Caprese Pasta Salad

Here’s a quick and easy pasta salad perfect for your summer parties! With just a few ingredients and lots of flavor it’ll be a hit for sure.

Caprese Pasta Salad Recipe

Now, I can’t lay claim to this idea. Justin and I took the kids to Eckert’s in Illinois to pick strawberries this spring and of course we had to visit their store afterwards. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend making a day of it! Their deli counter is huge with tons of ready-to-eat items and they have an extensive meat section as well. There’s so much to look at and so many delicious foods.

But their tomato-basil salad caught my eye. There’s nothing that makes me happier than summer-fresh tomatoes and basil. Honestly, if an herb could turn me on it would def be basil. Like, if Justin were to rub some all over himself I don’t think I’d be able to keep my nose off of him… But, that might be TMI.

Any who, I knew my mom’s retirement party was coming up and my sister, Jakki, and I had yet to nail down what pasta salad to make…personally I think eating cold pasta is weird but Jak was adamant that we needed a pasta salad for a side. I sent her a picture of that bowl of tomatoes, basil and pasta and said this is it! The one pasta salad I could get behind. She promptly sent me a link for a recipe she found online because that’s the kinda person she is…and I promptly ignored it and just made my own up because that’s the kinda person I am.

Caprese Pasta Salad

Isn’t that beautiful? All those colors and flavors.

Isn’t that beautiful? All those colors and flavors.

Makes about 8 cups. Serves about 20.

  • 2 Cups Uncooked Pasta: we used bowtie because it’s fun

  • 2-3 Sprigs Fresh Basil, chopped (or more if you L O V E it like me)

  • 1-2 Cups Cherry Tomatoes (sliced in half) or Chopped Large Tomatoes

  • 1 Cup Italian Dressing (I used Olive Garden’s)

  • 8 oz Fresh Mozzarella Pearls

  • 2 tsp salt

  • Optional: 1-2 Tbs Basil Paste (ya know, if you really, really like it)

  1. Cook pasta until al dente (firm to bite). Don’t over cook or it’ll get super mushy!

  2. Rinse boiled pasta under cold water to help stop the cooking process and cool it down.

  3. Add pasta to medium bowl along with tomatoes, basil, Italian dressing, mozzarella pearls and then salt to taste.

  4. Refrigerate in airtight container overnight to let all the flavors meld together. Keep cold.

This came together fast and was very popular at the party. My only regret was that I didn’t have any homegrown tomatoes to use for it but I’ll be making it again as soon as our tomatoes are ripe in the next few weeks!

Thank you for reading my first ever blog post! I hope you enjoyed it and come back often for more recipes, how-tos and bakery happenings.