Photo: Annie Japaud/Getty Images
The most patriotic holiday weekend is upon us: the Fourth of July. There are plenty of classic ways to celebrate the anniversary of our country’s independence this weekend — eating a hot dog, setting off fireworks, wearing Old Navy flag tank tops. But my holiday plans are simple. I’ll be cooking up a week’s supply of pasta salad.
Pasta salad isn’t just a good long-weekend activity but a perfect dish that can and should be enjoyed all summer long. Some of you may be picturing macaroni salad — elbow pasta bound together with creamy, mayonnaise-based dressing. Pasta salad is different. Pasta salad is better. While there’s no formal definition as to what constitutes a pasta salad, it’s broadly known as cold cooked pasta combined with a mishmash of fresh ingredients and a light vinaigrette dressing. Most versions, thank God, are mayo free and fare much better sitting in the sun for hours at a time. Some think of pasta salad as a side dish, but for the ambitious, it can be a well-balanced meal packed with all five food groups.
The success of your pasta salad, I believe, comes down to pasta shape. While I’m no chef, I’ve learned through following a lot of them on TikTok that we can do better than penne. Short twisty shapes are superior in this setting — think bow tie, shells, cavatelli, fusilli, rotini, orecchiette. Beyond that, there are no rules. Do you want to make a savory, spicy pasta salad? Or throw in an unexpected fruit, like grapes or mandarin oranges? What about some tuna? Go ahead. The world is your oyster. Would that be good in pasta salad? Sure!
It’s never been a better time to be a pasta salad, considering the dish has, in the past few years, earned the cultural clout of trendy ingredients and top-shot recipe videos. While its nutrient-packed younger sister, the dense bean salad, took off last year thanks to TikTok chef Violet Witchel, pasta salad has quietly become a staple on the social-media feeds of all our favorite semi-professional chefs. All the girls are making pasta salad. Hailee Catalano, one half of the beloved @2peoplecooking account, recently posted a chickpea pasta salad — the third pasta-salad recipe on her site. Meredith Hayden, a.k.a. Wishbone Kitchen, has filmed TikTok videos making a lemon arugula orzo pasta salad last summer, a Greek pasta salad last spring, and a chicken Caesar pasta salad in 2022. Cooking influencer @babytamago has so many pasta-salad recipes on her profile that I genuinely don’t know if she eats anything else.
To me, it’s pretty clear why pasta salad has basically zero haters. It’s usually the best part of a backyard barbecue’s menu — the temperature is refreshing, and the prep doesn’t require you to heat up your oven when it’s already 100 degrees outside. Even if you don’t want to bring a giant Tupperware of pasta and veggies to a casual hang, there are still ways to enjoy pasta salad. Have you considered tossing together a big batch to marinate in your fridge for days? That way, you can either bring it to work or eat it in the comfort of your air-conditioned home. Those, at least, are my holiday-weekend plans.
Stay in touch.
Get the Cut newsletter delivered daily
Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice
Related