How to Make Italian Pasta Salad

Learn how to make this wonderful Italian pasta salad and enjoy it with your favorite meals or serve alone for a light lunch.

Things You'll Need

• 1 Bottle of zesty Italian dressing
• 1 Box of medium shells or pasta of your choice
• 1 Onion, chopped fine
• 1 Can green beans, drained
• 1 Can sliced black olives, drained
• 1 8 ounce package shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 plum tomatoes, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 2 large radishes, sliced thin

Instructions

Italian Pasta Salad

1. Cook pasta per package directions and set aside. Clean and cut onions, radishes, tomatoes, and celery.

2. Drain and rinse cans of olives and green beans. Canned foods have a lot of added sodium and rinsing will eliminate some of the sodium.

3. 

   Combine vegetables with pasta and toss well. Just before serving, add the shredded mozzarella cheese and the zesty Italian dressing and give it a final toss. Serve and enjoy!

Tips & Warnings

• Don't add the dressing too far ahead of time or the pasta will absorb the liquid and the salad will be dry. Feel free to add different or more vegetables depending on your personal tastes. You can make your own dressing using 2 parts extra virgin olive oil to 1 part red wine vinegar, add 2 cloves of minced garlic and some salt and pepper. For a main dish salad or lunch, add thin sliced strips of salami.