Creamy Pesto Pasta Salad

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5 from 1 vote

A creamy pasta salad filled with veggies and cheese. Perfect for summer cookouts!

Prep Time15

Chilling time4

Course: Salad

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Pasta

Servings:

Calories: 200kcal

Ingredients

1 lb short, curly dry pasta rotini, cavatappi, fusili work well
6 cups chopped broccoli
1 cup light real mayonnaise
½ cup pesto
¼ cup kalamata olives halved
1 pint grape tomatoes halved
8 oz. mozzarella balls halved

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Instructions

Cook pasta according to package directions to the al dente stage. During the last 2 minutes of boiling the pasta, add the chopped broccoli to cook slightly.
Drain pasta and broccoli and place in a large bowl.
Mix mayonnaise and pesto together. Add 1/2 the mixture to the cooling pasta and broccoli. Reserve the rest to mix in later. Cover and place pasta and broccoli in the refrigerator to cool for 30 minutes to 4 hours.
Remove from the refrigerator and mix in the tomatoes, olives, and mozzarella pieces. Add the remaining mayonnaise and pesto sauce and mix together thoroughly.

Notes

You can mix this up and add other vegetables, some toasted pine nuts, or chopped walnuts. Use this as a guide and make it your own.

The recipe makes ~ 16 cups of pasta salad, with a serving = 1 cup (Nutritionals are based on the recipe as written and used my walnut arugula pesto. Store-bought pesto may change the nutritional information)

Nutrition