Obsession Worthy Pasta Salad Recipes (2 Ways)

What's up, dude? In the summer months, having a few good pasta salad recipes in your arsenal ready to go is absolutely essential. Today, I'm gonna show you two of my personal favorites that I've served to a lot of happy guests over the years. Now let's go. The first pasta salad I have for you today is my spin on the classic creamy macaroni salad that everybody knows and loves. We're gonna start with the veg prep. I'm just using a red bell pepper to start. I'm gonna slice around like this. There's a lot of ways to do this. This is just one way. Take Mr. Bottom off there. And I'm gonna throw down a little bit of a medium dice for all the different vegetables today. Well, most of them anyway. Something like this is absolutely fine. Get them in a bowl. Next, I'll dice up a red onion just around the same size as the bell pepper. Moving on to a little bit of celery. And if you know me, I do not like celery that much, although I do prefer it better raw or pickled. I don't like when it cooks for a long time in stock. I feel like it just takes over a little bit too much. And since these are so small, I'm just gonna slice these stalks in half. And then I'll just slice them across like this to match the size of everything else. Moving on, I'm just slicing up some green onion. Next up, this one's optional, but I like doing some dill pickles in here. What can I say? I just like pickles, same size as everything else. We're going in with a little bit of carrot next, and I'm just gonna grate it up on the largest setting of a box grater. Our next item is a little bit of a seasonal ingredient, but I'm going in with some raw corn. I'm just taking it off the cob here. I absolutely love raw corn in salads. For our creamy mac dressing, I'm starting with apple cider vinegar. I'm adding sugar to that apple cider vinegar first, as well as a little pinch of salt. Give that a mix and let it sit for a minute until that sugar dissolves. Next, I'm going in with mayonnaise, specifically Duke's. QP would be another good option. And because I'm trying to watch my figure right now, I'm just adding some Greek yogurt instead of all mayo. Next, Dijon mustard, yellow mustard, little bit of dill pickle relish, onion powder, garlic powder, and a little Sergeant Gilbert reporting for duty. That's just black pepper. Do as much or as little as you like. And that's all she wrote, my friends. We're just gonna give that a good mix and watch the magic unfold as it comes together. I get a lot of satisfaction when you just mix these sauces together. Wow, beautiful. All that's left to do now is cook the pasta. Okay, my friends, I got some boiling water under here. Nice little spin and release. Season the water just a bit, about a tablespoon of salt going in there. And for the mac salad, I'm using this elbow macaroni. You can use whatever, really, this is traditional, but if you like another shape, it's all kind of similar stuff. Make sure you give that a quick mix as soon as it goes in so it doesn't stick. And then I'm just gonna cook it per package instructions. You don't want this to be al dente. You want it to be totally done when it comes out of this pot. Time is up. We're gonna strain it. And now, immediately, I'm pouring this out onto a sheet pan, because I want to avoid rinsing it off. I don't want it to get waterlogged at all. Spread it out a little bit so it really cools down quickly and doesn't overcook. If I were to leave it stacked up inside that steamer, it would continue cooking too much. But on the sheet pan, you can see it's all releasing its heat. And now, while it's hot, what I'm gonna do is just hit it with a little bit of olive oil, just so it can suck that in instead of sink water. You know what I mean? I'll give this a little mix with the oil, and then I'll let this cool down all the way to room temp. The second pasta salad I have for you today is a true chef's dream. It's a meat lover's salad, AKA an Italian deli-style pasta salad with cold cuts and cheese. It really is phenomenal. Let's start with the prep. We'll start by cubing up our provolone cheese. And when you buy provolone, ooh, make sure it's nice and stinky. Start by slicing this in half. And I'll do cubes about this size, something like this. Does not need to be perfect. Into a bowl. For the deli meats, we're starting with some salami. And what I'm gonna do here, take a second, I'm just gonna stack it up. Really doesn't need to be perfect, you guys. Perfection is really the enemy to getting anything done in life. And from here, I'm just gonna slice it into these sort of big julienne strips like this. We'll add that to the cheese. Next, I'm doing the same thing, but with some hot pepperoni. And of course, you can use whatever kind of deli meats you like. The three I'm using today, are really just guidelines. But feel free to freestyle. You gotta have fun while you cook. And for the final meat, one of my absolute favorites, capicola. Or if you wanna be an asshole, capicola. And before we slice this, there's something I truly wanna clear up. If you're Italian, please comment in your answer below. Something that bothers me is when I hear Americans saying things with a thick Italian accent because they think it's proper. You know, like espresso or parmigiana. And I do it too, but do you like it when we do that? Because I don't wanna do it. I feel like I could just say capicola. Capicola, because that's how I would say it. If I say capicola, I feel like an asshole. Let me know, man. Let me know, because I don't wanna keep doing it. And same exact deal with this. We're gonna slice it up and throw it in with the meat and cheese. Maybe I'll just give it a quick. Moving on, I'm just slicing up some cherry tomatoes. Oh, I did it. I said tomatoes, you guys. I'm sorry. That's the bread in me. Pops out here and there. You may even hear a basil from time to time. Even that makes me mad. Oh my gosh, just wrap the basil with the tomatoes and some aluminum, love. You can get trousered and hemmed and bonkered. Some pitted mixed olives here. You can use whatever kind you like. And I'm cutting them in half just so I get a less sort of intrusive bite of olive, but you can leave them whole as well if you like. I'll julienne up half a red onion. Nice and thin. Last thing I'm doing here is slicing up some Italian parsley, which we'll put in a little later. Why did the man get fired from the pasta store? Because he made a few silly mistakes, which is the pasta I'm gonna be using today for the day. Few silly mistakes. Is it not obvious? Okay, my friends, same deal as the other one. We're just gonna season it up. And in it goes. That wasn't clear by my joke. It's for silly pasta, little spirals. And just like the elbows, we're gonna cook these all the way through. For some of the best Italian dressing ever, I'm starting with red wine vinegar. I'm adding honey, just a little. These little Calabrian chilies, which I'll put a link for in the description. Literally one of my favorite ingredients ever. Little Calabrian chili oil, just from the jar. Dijon mustard, stripped thyme, oregano, and Italian seasoning, dry. Chili flakes, garlic, olive oil, straight in. Bunch of Parmesan cheese, just grating it straight in. Oh yeah. And finally, a little salt and pepper. Now I'm gonna take a stick blender and just bring it together. Now, before we finish dressing these pasta salads, if you are someone who loves a great tasting coffee on the go, then you will love today's sponsor, the AeroPress Go+, which is an all-in-one coffee travel solution. It's really cool. And this is the first product that brews outstanding coffee using the system designed for life on the go. With the AeroPress Go+, I can brew my coffee directly into the tumbler that I drink from. 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Thank you AeroPress for sponsoring this video. Now let's get back to the recipe. Time has elapsed. I'm gonna go ahead and strain out my pasta. And again, I'm gonna get this straight out onto the sheet pan. And because this pasta salad is an oil-based, I'm gonna go ahead and just use a tiny bit of my dressing. So the pasta itself is really gonna suck that up. Again, just a quick mix and we'll let this cool down to room temp before continuing. I got my elbow macaroni in a big bowl. I'll add in my vegetables and the dressing. Oh yeah. Now I just get in here, give it a really good mix. This is exciting as it comes together. Look at that. It's clown food right there. Look at those, those are clown colors. Think of summer when I see this, you know? I think of like barbecues and friends. Used to have friends. I mean, back in my past, that was like, this would remind me of my friends that I used to have, essentially. What is it? Too sad, too sad. And when it's come together, just give it one final taste for seasoning. To me, this is absolutely spot on. So I think I'm gonna leave it just where it is and let's finish the other pasta salad. Room temp pasta's in a bowl. Let's add our meat and our cheese, olives, pepperoncini, tomatoes, onion, parsley, and some basil leaves. I'm just gonna roughly tear these in, nothing fancy. And here we go, all of our vinaigrette now. Dump it on. Oh, here we go, my friends. Let's give this a really good mix. Toss it together. Wow. That is a chef's pasta salad if I've ever seen one right there. And to finish it off, here's some slow motion pasta tossing for your enjoyment. Fork flip, double? Double fork, double fork flip, ah. There we have it, my friends, two pasta salads. I've got Marcus here to give it a taste with me. Which one should we try first? I don't know. Regular shmagular. I love the corn in there. Wow. Tasty, refreshing, lots of textures. This is different, but I like it. It's a good balance with sweet and sour. Sometimes I get mac salad, like at the store, it's sweet as hell and it's nasty. Subtle sweetness, a little bit of saltiness, a nice kick of vinegar. The dressing itself is really good. I like that a lot. The salt from the mustard, really nice. Now for the chef's salad, I would say Marcus, tailor that bite, man. Look. You're fat. I got like, I want to get a tomato in there too. I got the cheese. Make sure you get some cheese. Hit it, bud. That's crazy. Wow. That's a fat guy's loophole in eating a salad. That is a salad. That's a sandwich of a salad. It's so good. Those meats, the provolone, the spicy Calabrian chili Parmesan dressing, it's very delicious and very punchy with the flavors. I would wreck both of these salads just depending on how I'm feeling. These are great. All right, you got to make these. You got to make them, friends. Make it. Thanks for watching today, my friend. If you like written recipes, my master in the making ebook is linked down in the description and it has 55 awesome recipes. You'll also find links to products and equipment I love to use here in my kitchen, if you're interested in that. And if you want to keep learning today, here are two more of my personal favorite recipes from this channel. Until next time. You know I'll love you in a mile.