Italian Zucchini Pasta Salad
This recipe is one of my most popular recipes of all time! It’s so easy to throw together last minute, satisfies salty pasta salad cravings, it’s great for lunch meal prep, and, unlike most zucchini noodle dishes, it can last several days in the refrigerator without getting soggy (actually, it tastes even better on the second day, as the noodles absorb the flavors of the dressing.
We replace a rotini or macaroni pasta noodle and instead, make macaroni style zucchini noodles by slicing the zucchini halfway through lengthwise and then spiralizing on Blade C on the Inspiralizer. This yields c-shaped zoodles that work well for pasta salad style dishes, like this one.
This pasta salad is packed with all the classic Italian pasta salad ingredients, like meats, cheese, tomatoes, olives, veggies, and a simple red wine vinegar based dressing. It’s definitely one of those salads that you’ll be bringing over to every summer gathering and you’ll be the talk of the party – “Who brought THAT salad?!”
I love having this for lunch with a side of toasted crusted bread brushed with some olive oil and a glass of wine. It’s seriously the most satisfying meal! It’s also just great to have made in the fridge for snacking!
If you’re dairy-free, you can totally omit the provolone cheese, but if you’re not, I really recommend it – it amps up the flavor of this dish. If you’re vegetarian, omit the meats and add in some white beans for protein. Make it yours!
Watch our video to learn how to spiralize a zucchini using the Inspiralizer and subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch more videos:
Nutritional Information & Recipe
Italian Zucchini Pasta Salad
Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Total Time 15 minutes mins
Servings 3 -4
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Ingredients
- 2 medium zucchinis
- 1 cup quartered artichoke hearts drained, patted dry
- 1/2 cup cubed provolone cheese sliced into cubes
- 1/2 cup thick sliced salami sliced into half moons
- 1/2 red onion sliced thinly
- 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 cup halved medium black olives
- For the dressing
- 1.5 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Slice your zucchinis halfway through and then spiralize them, using Blade B.
Place your zucchini noodles in a bowl with the artichoke hearts, tomatoes, provolone cheese, salami, red onion and black olives.
Pour the dressing over the pasta salad and toss to combine thoroughly. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes (best if left for 3-4 hours) to let the dressing soften the zucchini.
Transfer to a serving bowl.
with love, Ali
comments
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Alice I'm pretty new to this and I'm still not sure which blade you're using. The one with the larger triangles? And do you normally make zucchini spaghetti with the blade with the smaller ones? Thanks!
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Alissandra Maffucci
Check out Inspiralized.com/howto for blade descriptors!
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Lauren Hey Ali!We are making this tonight! In the dressing did you use red wine vinegar (red wine is in the ingredients, but I assume you mean vinegar)? Thanks Ali, love your food.
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Eden Garner This looks delicious! I was wondering the same thing about the red wine. I'm also assuming she means red wine vinegar?
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Alissandra Maffucci Yes - red wine vinegar!
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Anonymous It says red wine vinegar in the ingredients.
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Allie Anderson Where did you get that cute pasta bowl? : )
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Alissandra Maffucci Thanks! It was a gift from my mom!
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B Ansel Ali, definitely an improvement on my May recipe challenge!! Thanks for this. The artichokes are a great addition, and provolone so much more flavor than mozzarella. I am loving Blade B elbows. I made a salad last night with zucchini elbows along with fresh mushrooms, mandarin oranges, toasted slivered almonds and gorgonzola with a citrus - herb vinaigrette. Delicious!
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Alissandra Maffucci Rebecca - I just loaded the May Recipe Challenge post and I hadn't checked out your recipe yet - what a coincidence! I'm so glad you're liking Blade B - it's great for pasta salads. I definitely want to try ours!
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B Ansel With the summer on it's way, my garden squash are growing like weeds here in Idaho. I can't wait to use my yellow zucchini and orange patty pan squash in this recipe. Yellow zucchini pasta will REALLY look like the real thing...and in my opinion, it always tastes better than wheat pasta. By the way, got my inspiralized.com bag in the mail...Love it!
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jesusan What a great idea! I've already had the experience of someone not realizing that zucchini spaghetti was not pasta spaghetti - which was a lot of fun. I will change out some of the ingredients here to match our tastes, but definitely want to make this. I really appreciate the way you share techniques for using the spiralizer. That will make it a much more useful - and used - tool in my kitchen.
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Alissandra Maffucci I'm so glad to hear that - thanks for the kind comment!
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Tieghan So pretty, Ali! What a great summer salad! :)
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Alissandra Maffucci Thanks, Tieghan!
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Anonymous I made this and let everything marinate overnight. Soooo good! What a great summer dish!
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AnniP This salad was amazing! And the dressing itself will be a great "stand alone" in my recipe file!
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heidi berger This is absolutely delightful. Made several times now using applewood smoked cheese.
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Alissandra Maffucci It's one of my favorites!!
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Amy Just when I thought I was going to have to make a regular pasta salad for our Father's day bbq in Seattle I discovered your recipe! I can't wait to make it! Thank you for sharing it!
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Alissandra Maffucci Amy - yay! Who eats regular pasta salad anymore, anyway? ;-)
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Anonymous I do!
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LJG I made this to share on Father's Day. My only additions were roasted red pepper and some capers. I also swapped the provolone for feta. This salad was a HUGE HIT. It's safe to say that I will be making this again. :)
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Alissandra Maffucci Thank you for sharing one of my recipes with your family !
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Lisa This was so delicious! It will make some great lunches during the summer. You've made me really glad that I planted zucchini. For the first time ever I think I won't run out of ideas for what to do with it all!
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simplymamacita I made this for dinner today. Oh my goodness - amazingly delicious! :-)
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Irene This is wonderful ! I had to change the cheese as here in my part of the UK it isn't available. But my lovely deli guy got out the cheese bible and we picked an alternative. Artichoke hearts were a revelation- never tried them before but OMG - delicious ! Hubby and I devoured this. Yum yum x
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Marisa O. Ahhhhhmazing. So delicious. Thank you!
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cat I found it worked better for me to make a smaller slit on each side of the zucchini (instead of one deep one). It stayed on the spiralizer better without falling off. Thanks for the inspiration! Now my kids will have a huge bowl of "pasta" salad at tonight's swim meet, and I think they're gonna love it. Added in some grilled Italian sausage too.
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Anonymous This was so great! I made a bunch of substitutions to use things I had on hand (thinner-spiralized zucchini and yellow squash instead of the zucchini elbows, chopped capers instead of black olives, a minced shallot instead of half a red onion), and added a handful of chopped green onions and a dash of minced pepperoncini.
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Alissandra Maffucci Sounds even better!
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findingmykd I made it for a barbecue this weekend, and while it was delicious, it was definitely a bit on the watery side...any suggestions?
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Alissandra Maffucci I've never had an issue with this dish being watery! Perhaps you needed to give it a big toss?
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Sarah Will this salad keep in the fridge?
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Alissandra Maffucci Yes, very nicely!
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plasterer bristol This sounds really delicious and something new to try. Thank you for sharing this.Simon
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Michele Pryse Very quick to make - refreshing, satisfying, perfectly delicious! 5 Stars!
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Melissa Made this today and it was delicious!
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Meaghan This is awesome to hear!
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Danielle I made this last weekend for a 4th of July gathering, and it was a hit! I loved it of course, and everyone else, including a friend that is quite picky about what he eats, found it quite tasty as well. I will definitely be making this again. Thank you!
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Meaghan This is awesome to hear, Danielle!
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carol Terrific recipe. I added a chopped spiralized red pepper for color. The recipe in the first cookbook , which I followed, doubled the dressing ingredients. That definitely needs to be done on this recipe. Glad I used the cookbook.
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Andi Passaro I'm making this salad and the Greek version today! Can't wait to try them. Thank you very much! :-)
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Amy Maglosky This recipe is top notch! The dressing itself is delicious- i cant wait to put it on everything :) Thank you!
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Meaghan Thank you for giving it a try. That's so great to hear!!
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Rachel I am a pasta salad fiend and when I first saw this recipe, I had my doubts that it could ever live up to my dreams of carby, bow-tie goodness. But I am so blown away by how satisfying these noodles taste, even in zucchini form! The dressing is so simple and delicious with that kick of lemon and red wine vinegar. Not a huge raw tomato fan so I left them out this time, but I might add in some cut up roasted red peppers next time. Thank you Ali!
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Meg This is delicious! I've been making it every week for us to "snack" on (better than chips)! We don't eat meat so I substitute sundried tomatoes. Yum!
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Carly Glazer Hi Meg! Love this idea - what a great healthy snack!
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Becky Does this call for the artichoke hearts packed in water or the marinated artichoke hearts?
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Esther In the text of the blog post it says to use blade color but in the recipe itself it says use blade b. Which is correct?
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Nadine I was searching online for something to make for our annual BBQ that was a healthy spin on a classic and I hit the golden ticket with this recipe - thank you soooo much it was a HUGE hit. Love that the zoodles don't get soggy, I plan on making this more often for sure!
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Meaghan Nadine! That's so fantastic to hear. Thank you for giving it a try! We're glad it was a hit.
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