This easy Grinder Pasta Salad is made with tender pasta, a variety of vegetables, melt in your mouth fresh mozzarella balls, pepperoni, and salami, and is covered in a homemade dressing.
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f you like the simple grinder sub that has been out there for a while, or have seen the one on TikTok with the delicious twist, you're going to love this Grinder Pasta Salad recipe. It has all your favorite delicious flavors from that classic sandwich, but this time, in pasta salad form!
Making this Italian Grinder Salad is easy and very fast with only 15 minutes of hands on prep. It's full of unique flavor and texture, like my Dill Pickle Pasta Salad. My Southwestern Chicken Pasta Salad is another unique appetizer or side dish to bring to your next gathering.
Why This Grinder Pasta Salad Works
Just like other Pasta Salad recipes, this is easy to scale to make more servings and is an ideal dish to bring to summer potlucks, or gatherings like my Deviled Egg Pasta Salad.
A favorite thing for many people who enjoy pasta salads is the fact that they're easily customizable. It's a great way to use up leftover vegetables or ingredients that you need to use before they go bad. This combination is delicious on it's own, but can be dressed up by adding other fresh veggies or seasonings, like Italian seasoning, fresh basil and parsley, and really amp up the flavor with some roasted garlic cloves.
Ingredients Needed
- Mayonnaise: Use the real stuff.
- Italian dressing: Any brand will work or you can make this homemade version.
- Grated parmesan cheese: I like to use the fresh stuff from the deli.
- Herbs and seasoning: finely minced or grated garlic cloves, salt, and black pepper.
- Rotini pasta: can be subbed with any other small, short pasta choice
- Fresh vegetables: Cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, pepperoncini peppers, pickled red onions or thinly sliced red onions, and crisp lettuce like romaine lettuce or iceberg lettuce.
- Cheese: Mozzarella pearls. If you can't find them, you can use fresh mozzarella cheese and just cut it into small cubes.
- Deli meats: Salami and pepperoni what I prefer, ham can also be used.
How to make this grinder salad recipe
- Step 1: In a small bowl, add the dressing ingredients and combine. Place in the fridge while you assemble.
- Step 2: Cook the pasta to aldente according to the instructions on the box, drain, rinse and dump into a large bowl. Add other salad ingredients minus lettuce to large mixing bowl.
- Step 3: Start to toss salad and add all of the dressing now if serving soon. Chill until ready to serve.
- Step 4: When ready to serve, add chopped lettuce and toss to mix and coat it all.
Recipe Tips
- If you don't like a touch of heat, omit the red pepper flakes from the dressing.
- This pasta salad is great for meal prep. You can make this 99% of the way through and then toss with the rest of the dressing and lettuce later.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2-3 days.
Recipe Faq's
This Italian Grinder Pasta Salad can be made several hours ahead of when serving. You can even make it the night before. If you plan on assembling it early, I recommend trying to save about ½ of the homemade dressing so you can add it to the salad right before you serve it with the chopped lettuce then too. If you add the dressing or shredded lettuce too early, it'll get soggy too fast.
The name comes from the traditional Italian sandwich known as a "grinder". An Italian Grinder Sandwich is typically made with French or Italian bread then filled with meats, cheeses, vegetables, and dressings.
Some salad recipes tell you not to rinse the pasta. But with this recipe, we rinse it to stop the cooking process so it's ready to combine with the rest of the ingredients. The dressing should still stick to the pasta and other ingredients nicely even if the pasta is rinsed.
You need to cook your pasta to al dente, any more and your pasta may start to break down over time and make the salad soggy. Al dente pasta also seems to hold on to dressing better than super soft pasta.
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Grinder Pasta Salad
Ingredients
For The Dressing
- 1 ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 1/3 cup Italian dressing
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 garlic cloves grated or finely minced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
For The Salad
- 1 pound rotini pasta
- 1 cup cucumbers diced
- 1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes cut in half
- ½ cup pepperoncinis
- 1 cup salami cut into slices
- 1 cup pepperoni cut into slices
- ½ cup pickles red onions or red onions cut into thin slices
- 1 cup mozzarella pearls
- 1 cup crisp lettuce romaine or iceberg
Instructions
- In a small bowl add the dressing ingredients mix until combined and place in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- Cook the pasta according to the pkg directions until al dente, drain and rinse in a colander
- Place the pasta into a large bowl, add the cucumbers, tomatoes, pepperchinis, salami, Pepperoni, pickled red onions, mozzarella cheese.
- Toss everything together with the dressing and add salt and pepper to taste, chill until ready to serve.
- Right before serving add in the chopped lettuce and serve!
Yay Ann! Happy you loved it 🙂
This was delicious!