Muffuletta sandwich in pasta salad form! This Muffuletta Pasta Salad is my new favorite summer salad consisting of ingredients we know and love in a classic Cajun muffuletta sandwich – lots of olives, ham, salami, cheese, red bell peppers and more!
This post is sponsored by my friends at Tony Chachere’s! We are celebrating Tony Chachere’s 50th Anniversary, and I am excited to share this yummy recipe with you. All opinions, as usual, are my own.
What is Muffuletta Pasta Salad
Muffuletta sandwich is the popular New Orleans style sandwich that originated from Italian immigrants in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The traditional Muffuletta sandwich is typically loaded with an olive salad, salami, ham, and cheeses…all packed between two split slices of muffuletta bread.
We are so inspired by this delicious sandwich we created this Muffuletta Pasta Salad! It consists of key components of the sandwich, along with pasta, tossed in the delicious and tangy Creole-Style Italian Dressing by Tony Chachere.
Not only is it incredible yummy, with incredible textures and flavors, this is so very easy to make!
It can be served warm, cold or in room temperature. It is one of those dishes you can leave out for a few hours and it will still tastes just as good, making it perfect for summer cookouts, parties and potlucks.
Ingredients
Made with fresh and high quality ingredients, no wonder this pasta tastes amazing! Here’s what you will need:
- Tony Chachere’s Creole Style Italian Dressing – the true star of the dish. This dressing is tangy, zesty, savory with a hint of sweetness. The best way to put it is it’s Italian dressing with a Cajun twist. I am kinda obsessed and use it in most of my salads these days!
- fusilli pasta – I like this shape for this Muffuletta Pasta Salad because it traps the dressing well, however, feel free to use other types of pasta.
- salami – I like to get thick cuts of salami and cut it them cubes so that I can bite into thick chunks of the yummy meat. Yum… Feel free to slice them if you prefer.
- ham – I also cubed them for the same reason. Sliced ham would work as well.
- mozzarella cheese – cubes all the way!
- provolone cheese – same as the above 🙂
- black olives – slice them thinly
- green olives – slice them thinly
- red bell peppers – this is usually an ingredient in the olive salad and I love the added dimension of flavor it brings to this pasta salad.
- parsley
- pepperoncini peppers
How to Make it
To make this delicious Muffuletta Pasta Salad, start by cooking pasta in boiling water.
Follow package instructions to cook pasta.
Once pasta is cooked, drain water and set pasta aside.
Run cold water through pasta and drain it to prevent pasta from sticking to each other.
Let pasta cool if not the hot pasta will melt the cheese when tossed together with the rest of the ingredients.
Add cool pasta to a large mixing bowl, then prep and bring together the rest of the ingredients – black olives, green olives, salami, ham, mozzarella, and provolone.
Give it a nice toss – be careful not to squish the pasta.
Then drizzle that delicious Creole-Style Italian Dressing all over the Muffuletta Pasta Salad.
Italian dressing will coat the pasta, meats and cheeses…giving everything a nice tangy flavor.
Don’t forget to garnish with fresh chopped parsley to give this Muffuletta Pasta Salad an extra burst of freshness in every bite!
I also like to top it with a (or two, or three!) pepperoncini for those who like that extra heat to their pasta.
And that’s it!
A super duper easy and yummy pasta salad that will actually fill you up!
Muffuletta Pasta Salad is light, very flavorful, with amazing textures of chewy, crunchy, juicy etc, that once you start eating, it’s truly hard to stop!
Substitutions and Variations
There are many ways to make this Muffuletta Pasta Salads, and other ingredients you can add in addition to or in place of what I suggested.
Here are other yummy ingredients that would go well in this pasta salad:
- Meats: sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, bacon
- Vegetables: red onion, celery, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce
- Cheese: Swiss, Monterey jack, Colby jack, cheddar, pepper jack, feta
- Pasta: rotini, penne, ziti, other bite-sized shaped pasta
How to serve this pasta salad
Muffuletta Pasta Salad goes really well with any meat dishes (especially grilled meats!), seafood dishes, burgers, sandwiches and even by itself! I have totally made a lunch or dinner out of just this salad.
They are so perfect for summer dinners, cookouts and barbecues.
It’s great anytime of the year, but somehow, whenever I think of this, I always think of summer days, eating outside, and pairing it with a glass of wine or White Peach Sangria. 😉
Here are some of my favorites dishes to serve with Muffuletta Pasta Salad:
- The Ultimate Homemade Burger
- Restaurant Style Steak
- Garlic Rosemary Chicken
- Grilled Cajun Chicken
- Lemon Balsamic Grilled (Or Pan-Fried) Chicken
- Fish Po’ Boy
- Fish Tacos with Mango Peach Salsa
Make Ahead and Storage
If making ahead, you can bring all the ingredients together but avoid tossing Muffuletta Pasta in dressing until ready to serve for ultimate freshness.
If storing leftovers, and leftovers are already tossed in dressing, store pasta salad in an air-tight container in refrigerator for up to 48 hours.
Other Yummy Salad Recipes
We love a good salad, and here are some of our favorites!
- Greek Cucumber Salad
- Potato Mac Salad
- Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing
- Bruschetta Pasta Salad
- Caesar Pasta Salad
- Winter Fruit Salad
- Fall Harvest Salad
Muffuletta Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 8 oz fusilli pasta
- 1 cup salami cubed
- 1 cup ham cubed
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese cubed
- 1 cup provolone cheese cubed
- 1 cup black olives sliced
- 1 cup green olives sliced
- ½ cup red bell peppers chopped
- 3/4 cup Tony Chachere’s Creole Style Italian Dressing or more to taste
- 1 tbsp parsley chopped
- 1-2 pepperoncini peppers
Instructions
- Bring water to boil in a medium pot, then add fusilli pasta. Cook fusilli pasta based on package instructions. When done, drain water and set pasta aside to cool. Pasta needs to cool before tossing with the other ingredients, if not cheese will melt. Cool pasta by running over cold water to expedite the process if desire.
- In a large bowl, bring together cooled pasta, salami, ham, mozzarella cheese, provolone cheese, red bell pepper, black olives, and green olives.
- Pour Italian dressing all over and toss to combine.
- Bring pasta salad to a serving bowl. Garnish with parsley, top with pepperoncini peppers.
- Serve and enjoy!
Loved the flavors of this pasta salad, muffuletta is one of my favorite sandwiches! To enjoy in pasta salad form, even better! Made it for a potluck and it was devoured!
YES! It’s such a good potluck dish! Glad you enjoyed it!
This salad is absolute PERFECTION!! I have made it twice already!!
Woohoo! It really is yummy – happy to hear you enjoyed it!
YUM! I love sandwiches broken down into deconstructed other things!
Thanks, Lynn! ME TOO!! 🙂
This is now my favorite salad dish! I just love all of the flavors and textures!
So glad to hear, Julie!
I am making this for NYE, I cannot find Tony Chachere’s Creole Style Italian Dressing what dressing should I use in its place?
Balsamic vinaigrette or Italian dressing works great in this!
There’s a delicious short-cut, too! Instead of using plain olives, chopped peppers and parsley, just add a cup of New Orleans style Olive Salad (in the jar) instead! You can choose a spicy or regular version. There are several local ‘store brands’ of Olive Salad available for purchase as well as Occhipinti’s and Partanna’s. When substituting the Olive Salad, you can probably skip the Tony Cachere’s dressing, too, adding just a little lemon juice or wine vinegar to balance the oil content in the olive salad. In fact, in the Metro NOLa area, some local restaurants serve a side lettuce simply topped with olive salad!
And for those who may be watching their salt intake, the extra-salty ham and salami can be swapped with grilled chicken breast strips, lightly seasoned with a no-salt italian spice blend! Just delicious!
Thanks for sharing your variations, Lynn!