Muffuletta Pasta Salad

With Mardi Gras fast approaching I’m super excited about today’s recipe!

Muffuletta Pasta Salad is one of my quick and easy go-to recipes for the ultimate side dish.

Who doesn’t love a good muffuletta sandwich?

Personally, I love anything that contains muffuletta ingredients!

From pasta, sandwiches, pizza rolls…

How can you not enjoy lots of soppressata, mortadella, capicola, and salami meats?

Now add that to cheese! I like to add provolone, jack, and cheddar cheese to my muffulettas.

Don’t forget lots of fresh olive spread, bell peppers, and onions.

I love to use hot Italian giardiniera and add extra olives sometimes.

Muffuletta spread has way more olives so whenever I use giardiniera I have to kick up the olive count!

This pasta salad is so simple to make once you dice up all the meats and cheeses.

I was texting my baby girl Summer during her teacher training asking her when will she be home because I need her to chop up all of these ingredients.

She didn’t respond! lol

Well, once you get past all of the chopping it’s smooth sailing after that.

Just cook up some pasta. I like to use rotini but use whichever pasta you prefer.

Large elbow macaroni noodles work very well too.

While the pasta salad is cooking make your quick red wine vinaigrette.

It’s just extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, a little apple cider vinegar, and spices.

Shake it up to mix well. Toss all of the pasta ingredients together and mix well.

This is the perfect side dish or light dinner.

My family and I ate it with fresh crusty butter bread.

Enjoy!

Muffuletta Pasta Salad

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 10-15

Ingredients:

1 lb. box rotini pasta

1 (16oz) jar giardiniera or olive spread

1 cup cherry peppers, diced

1 cup black olives, sliced

1 cup pepperoncini, drained, sliced

1 cup Genoa, salami, diced

1 cup soppressata, diced

1 cup mortadella ham, diced

1 cup capicola, diced

1 cup provolone cheese, diced

1 cup jack cheese, diced

1 cup cheddar cheese, diced

1 cup bell peppers, mixed colors, diced

1 small red onion, diced

1/2 bunch green onions, diced small

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon Creole seasoning

extra virgin olive oil

For the Vinaigrette:

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon creole seasonings

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon crushed oregano

pinch of crushed red pepper

Directions:

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.

Add pasta and cook according to pasta box directions.

Rinse pasta with cold water, drain, coat in a little olive oil.

Add vinaigrette ingredients to a large lidded jar, shake well, set aside.

Cut up all the meats, veggies, and cheese, place into a large bowl.

Add pasta and vinaigrette, mix well.

Chill for about 1 hour prior to serving.