This pasta salad is light and is always great to serve for any holiday or party. Both family and guests love this pasta salad. It’s easy to prepare and uses few ingredients. Serve as a side dish, appetizer or add some shredded chicken and enjoy as the main meal. Have this on the table in 15 minutes for everyone to enjoy.
Change up the traditional pasta salad and make this dish that is much healthier than others. Make this dish even healthier by serving it with whole wheat organic pasta.
Caprese is the perfect combination of flavors in each bite. Ripe tomatoes, sweet basil and creamy mozzarella cheese comes together to create a flavorful pasta salad. This recipes screams summer in a bowl.
We promise you’ll want to serve this at your next BBQ, dinner party, lunch snack, family reunion, holiday party and just about any other occasion.
The tomatoes and cheese marinate in this pesto vinaigrette and infuse the pasta with Mediterranean flavors. This is what dreams are made of! I wish I had something like this when I was a vegetarian 10 years ago. I’d eat this everyday.
To lighten up this recipe, use a light olive oil and whole wheat, organic pasta.
To make this recipe, you’ll need pasta noodles, any kind will do but I used cavatappi pasta. Other ingredients include plenty of fresh basil, olive oil, cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.
Start by boiling a pot of water on the stove top. Add a little olive oil to the pot and boil according to package directions. Once done, drain water in strainer and wash pasta under cold water then drain it again.
In a blender, prepare the pesto. Combine fresh basil leaves, parsley, olive oil, splash of lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Be careful on the salt, just a little is needed to give it flavor. You can always add more salt or pepper if needed before tossing with pasta. Blend everything together until it’s finely chopped.
In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together and top with an leftover fresh basil leaves. Coat everything good for best results.
Caprese Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- ¾ pound cavatappi pasta
- grape tomatoes
- 8 ounces small mozzarella balls
- 1 cup fresh basil 1 ounce
- ½ cup fresh parsley
- ⅓ cup Parmesan cheese grated
- 5 tablespoons olive oil
- splash of lemon juice
- Pepper and salt to taste
Instructions
- Fill large pot with water and 1 tablespoon olive oil then place on stove top over medium high heat.
- Cook pasta according to directions then rinse under cold water and allow water to drain.
- Meanwhile, in a blender, combine fresh basil leaves, fresh parsley, Parmesan cheese, 4 tablespoons olive oil, splash of lemon juice and blend until coarsely chopped.
- Add pepper and salt to taste.
- Mix pasta, mozzarella cheese balls, tomatoes and basil mixture together until combined well.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate and it's accuracy is not guaranteed to be exact.
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21 Responses
Would this work at all with a pre-made store bought pesto sauce?
Fresh basil is hard to find around where I live.
Hi Rachel, that should work just fine. Keep some olive oil on hand in case it needs to be thinned out and moisturized!
Great suggestion! Thank you.
How well does it do sitting overnight? I need to make a side dish for my co-worker to take to a family get-together on Saturday and would need to make this on Friday to give to her. It sounds great and I would think that it would be even better the next day. Any thoughts?
Hi Stacie! Go ahead and make it the night before. Once the noodles are done cooking, coat them with cooking spray or some olive oil to prevent them from sticking together. Make the sauce and keep it separated until you’re ready to use.
I love the original twist you gave to the classic recipe like caprese salad! Sound and looks delicious 🙂
Looks very clean and refreshing, not used those little mozzarella balls in a salad yet. Would be a lovely summer dish.
I don’t think I can wait until summer to enjoy this again 😉 One of my favorite salads, currently!
Oh, that’s all so cute, all the same size! LOL
I’ll make a note of it for next summer – this would be wonderful on a buffet…
We enjoyed caprese salad so much in Italy that we wrote a post about it on our blog. Italians certainly know how to make cheese. Your caprese pasta salad looks great.
I just love caprese salad and pasta, so this combination is a winner in my book for sure! I’m pinning this now!
This looks amazing!!! Definitely want to try making this soon 🙂 I also love the close-up shots of the salad!
Oh man! This pasta salad looks delish! Pinning it so I don’t forget to make it soon. 🙂
I love pasta salad. This is a great twist on my usual pasta salad recipe! Pinned!
Thanks for the pin! I love anything with cheese!
Looks so easy and delicious. Going to bring this to a potluck for sure!
Such a great idea. I’d totally be all over this dish and eat it by the spoonfuls. Thanks, Marci!
It’s only breakfast time… and now I’m already looking forward to planning dinner!
I could eat this a l l day long!
This recipe makes me dream of summer again, thank you! 😀
breat pasta salad, i love those little tomatoes