5-Minute Italian Pasta Salad Dressing

While pasta salad is a no-brainer at cookouts and picnics this time of year, it’s also dish I turn to for lunches and easy weeknight dinners throughout the summer. It’s not just because the muggy weather warrants cold meals on repeat, but also because it’s a wonderful way to put in-season vegetables to work while concurrently making use of my pantry. This simple Italian-inspired dressing is well-suited to just about any pasta salad equation and takes all of five minutes to throw together.

There are endless iterations of pasta salad dressing, and all are wonderful in their own right, but this is version inspired by Italian dressing. It’s made of olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, dried oregano, and a bit of Dijon mustard for creaminess.

The best time to dress pasta salad is immediately after you’ve drained and rinsed your pasta to cool it down. At this stage, the pasta will still be slightly warm, so it will soak up some of the dressing and become the most flavorful. Save a little dressing, too, because if you make the pasta salad ahead of time, you’ll likely find it will have absorbed quite a lot of it and it might need to be refreshed with a spoonful or two more.

This recipe makes more than enough to dress a full pound of pasta with additions such as the following:

• Chopped raw vegetables like cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers
• Crumbled or cubed cheeses like feta or provolone
• Chopped marinated artichokes or sun-dried tomatoes
• Torn prosciutto, crumbled bacon, or chopped salami
• Pitted and halved olives
• Baby arugula or spinach