Easy Caprese Pasta Salad | 10-Minute Summer Recipe

⭐️ We took Caprese Salad to the next level by mixing its ingredients with pasta, making this Caprese Pasta Salad a light and refreshing side dish that’s a crowd favorite. Get the recipe here — https://www.eatingonadime.com/caprese-pasta-salad/

Caprese Pasta Salad is made with fresh ingredients and is easy to make. Loaded with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, basil & balsamic vinegar, this 10-minute recipe is the ultimate side dish or light meal.

🟢 Ingredients:
☑️ 16 ounces of Rotini Pasta
☑️ 16 ounces of Mozzarella Pearls, cut in half
☑️ 3 cups Cherry Tomatoes, cut in half
☑️ 1/2 cup Fresh Basil, thinly sliced
☑️ 1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
☑️ 3 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
☑️ 1/2 teaspoon Garlic, minced
☑️ 1 teaspoon Salt
☑️ 1 teaspoon Black Pepper

Get the full recipe and nutritional information here: https://www.eatingonadime.com/caprese-pasta-salad/

🔶🔶Kitchen Gadgets I Used:🔶🔶
➡️ Caraway Stock Pot – https://amzn.to/4k3852V
➡️ Similar Stock Pot – https://amzn.to/3TaJLBh
➡️ Pyrex Mixing Bowl – https://amzn.to/3UZmnYN
➡️ Cutting Board – https://amzn.to/40WIgM1
➡️ Knife – https://amzn.to/3YZHECF
➡️ Measuring Spoons – https://amzn.to/3V4VeUd
➡️ Strainer – https://amzn.to/3F1naDo
➡️ Whisk – https://amzn.to/3V1Pjzk
➡️ Spoon/Spatula – https://amzn.to/3PHm3Ld

🔶🔶More Pasta Salad Recipe videos:🔶🔶
👉 Greek Pasta Salad – https://youtu.be/RvvknOPa-Ac?si=XTmI882VtqL4a3Z9

👉 Cowboy Caviar Pasta Salad – https://youtu.be/kjibNg9yhr4?si=8uKiPblguTFjJ9Iq

👉 Mediterranean Pasta Salad – https://youtu.be/-5bi4ZDyjBo?si=izYgEk5na7Vt3trn

If you love pasta salad, you have come to the right place. Today, I’m going to show you how to make my all-time favorite Capri pasta salad. It’s everything you love about Capri salad and a pasta salad combined into one. And I’m going to show you how easy it is to make. [Music] Hi, I’m Carrie with eating on a dime.com and we’re on a mission to help families eat well on a budget. We love pasta salads here, especially in the summertime or around the holidays. Bringing a pasta salad is one of the easiest things that you can take to a barbecue because it’s so easy to travel and it just tastes better the longer it sits. Now, today’s recipe is Capri pasta salad and you can find the full recipe linked in the description for you or you can always find the recipe and all of our recipes at eating on a dime.com. And that’s where we have thousands of free recipes that I think you’re going to love. A lot of people will watch us on our videos and not realize that we have a whole website filled with thousands of recipes. So, make sure you go to eating on a dime.com and check it out. Now, while you’re there, go ahead and search for pasta salads because not only will you find this one, but you’re going to find a ton of delicious ones that I think you’re going to love. And before we get started, I did want to tell you to like and subscribe. Like this video and subscribe because I don’t want you to miss any more of our familyfriendly recipes. We love having this community here. We are over 130,000 subscribers right now and we just love sharing recipes with you and we want you to join. So make sure you like and subscribe and also drop a comment and let me know what is your favorite pasta salad recipe. The very first thing we need to do is bring a pot of water to boil so we can cook our pasta. Once the water comes to boil, go ahead and toss in your rotini pasta. I am doing one lb. And we’re going to cook until al dente. Al dente means you just want to take about 1 or 2 minutes off the cooking time so that way the pasta isn’t soggy and is still nice and firm. After you dump in your pasta, make sure you stir it around so that way that pasta doesn’t stick. Now, my package says that I’m going to cook this for 7 minutes to get that all dente. While the pasta is cooking, let’s go ahead and start on the rest of the recipe. You’re going to need to start off with some fresh mozzarella, and they’re called pearls. I wanted to show you what it looks like in the package that it comes into. And then when you open it up, it looks like it’s one giant cheese, but they’re actually little balls inside. Okay, so I just wanted to make sure you guys know that if you’ve never purchased it before. Um, and this is really important because you want the fresh mozzarella because, well, in a Capri salad, it’s usually fresh mozzarella, but also because it really amplifies the taste, okay? Cuz this is like one of the key ingredients in the recipe. So, don’t skimp and buy cheap mozzarella. Now, our recipe says to cut these in half, but today mine are pretty small, so I’m not going to cut them in half. So, if you find that they’re bigger, sorry, I have to eat one. If you find that I just couldn’t handle them. I couldn’t take it anymore. If you find that they’re bigger, then go ahead and um cut them in half. But today, I’m going to leave them whole. And I want to give you an example. Here is the tomatoes that we’re going to use in the recipe, but we’re going to cut them in half. Um nobody wants to take a huge bite out of this. So, we’re going to cut these in half. And I like to compare them. If this is pretty close to the same size as half a tomato, you do not have to cut them. And we’re just going to toss them in the bowl. And we’re going to need 16 oz. I don’t think I told you guys that yet. And each one of these is 8 oz each. So, we’re using two of them for this recipe. And I’m just breaking them apart. I wanted to show you up close what it looks like in the package. And you can literally just squeeze it and they separate just like that. Now, we’re going to start with the cherry tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes, you know, the cute little ones like this. We’re going to cut each of them in half. I like to cut them in half lengthwise, but you can do um the other way as well if you want to. We’re going to need about three cups. It seems like a lot, but that’s because tomatoes is it’s a big ingredient in Capri salad. So, first cut each one in half lengthwise and toss them in. Now, three cups, I believe, is about the same as like a 12 oz container of tomatoes. And so, we are going to um use this whole container close. You have two options. You can cut them this way or you can cut them this way. Either way works great. I prefer this way, but they both are going to be delicious. Oh, the timer on my pasta just went off. So, it’s ready to drain our pasta. Once it’s done, we’re going to drain that pasta right into a colander in the sink. And then we want to immediately run cold water on them. So go ahead, go ahead and just keep running the cold water on top until it starts cooling off. And then you’re going to put your hands in. But it’s going to be really hot. So wait until it cools off a little bit cuz we want to get the whole pasta to be cool. And the reason we’re doing this is because we don’t want that pasta to cook. It’ll keep cooking if it just sits there in the heat. So we’re bringing it the temperature down so it’ll stop cooking. And that’s how you get that nice pretty firm pasta in a pasta salad. And if you don’t do this, you’re going to have soggy um noodles that are falling apart. Now, you need some fresh basil. Now, fresh basil, don’t skip on this because it’s a main ingredient. Don’t get dried. You could, but I’m going to judge you. Not really. Well, maybe a little, but go ahead and grab some fresh basil. Um it’s really easy to you can get at the store. And we’re going to just pinch off all the leaves. And we need about a half a cup. So, it’s a lot of fresh basil. But again, in the Capri salad, you have to have fresh basil. I’m not actually going to judge you guys. I was kidding. Okay. And then once we get this done, then we’re going to slice it. And we’re going to put half inside this pasta salad. We’re going to save the other half before right before we serve it. And that’s because we’re going to we’re making like a basamic olive oil, you know, like salad mixture basically. And um we don’t the the basil will get wilted in there. So we want some that’s wilted that’s been soaking in it, but then some fresh right when we’re ready to serve it. So what I like to do is I like to stack the leaves on top of each other. And then we’re just going to run our knife through it and thinly slice it. So then you get these beautiful little strips of basil. I’m going to do it again. Just stack a few on top. It doesn’t have to be perfect. And then you use your large knife. You guys know I love this knife. Any large knife will work. The bigger the better, I believe. And you get all these beautiful little strips. Now we’re going to sprinkle in half of those basil leaves right inside. but we’re going to keep the other half set out. Now, we’re going to make the dressing. It’s really simple. We’re just going to take 1/4 cup of olive oil. 3 tablebsp of balsamic vinegar, a half a teaspoon of minced garlic. Scrape that out of the bowl. Then, a teaspoon of pepper and a teaspoon of salt. And then we’re going to whisk this together. Now, give this a a little bit of time to whisk together because you want to make sure that oil and that vinegar combine. And it kind of takes an aggressive whisk, not very long, like 30 seconds to get it well combined. Then we’re going to pour this right over the tomatoes and the mozzarella. [Music] Then we’re just going to toss this to combine. You want everything to be nice and coated in that mixture. Now, here’s a little tip. Now, we’re going to let this sit and soak in for Oops. See, you just got some on my white skirt. Yay. That’s why you should wear an apron, Carrie. Give me a heart if you’re like me and know you should wear an apron, but you don’t. Okay. So, we’re going to let this soak for 20 minutes. And the reason we’re going to do that is we want to get that nice flavor on those tomatoes and mozzarella. If we put our pasta in right now, the pasta is going to soak it all up and then you have a nice flavor on just the pasta. But if we set it right now, then it’s going to soak up in the cheese and the tomatoes. And then when we add the pasta, it’ll soak up the remaining. So, we’re going to let this set for 20 minutes. I’m going to put it in the fridge. You don’t really have to, but I want to keep those mozzarella nice and firm so when we toss it, it doesn’t get all smooshy. I let it marinate in the fridge for a little bit. So now we’re just going to add it all together. So we’re going to add the pasta. Oh, and also I taste tested it to make sure it was good. It’s good, guys. So we’re going to give it a quick toss. And we want to get that um juice or the dressing from the bottom that didn’t get soaked into the tomatoes and all around into that pasta. We’re almost done. Top it with that fresh basil and you’re ready to serve. Look how beautiful it is, guys. I’m so pumped. Let’s just take a little bite. Thanks so much for joining me, friends. I hope you love today’s recipe, and I cannot wait for you to try it. Remember, the full recipe, nutritional information, tips, tricks, and how to save this v or save the recipe is all linked in the description below, and you can find it on eating on a dime.com. Now, once you make it, please go back to the uh recipe and leave a star review. Um, we always strive for five stars, but we want to know how you like it. if you did anything different. Did you try the chicken edition? But let us know. It’s the best way for us to hear from you and for us to communicate with you. Okay, friends. I’m out of here. I’ve got some pasta salad to eat. I hope you enjoyed today’s recipe. Let me know in the comments what you want to see next on our videos. Um, but thanks so much for joining me. Like and subscribe and I’ll see you next time in my kitchen. Bye, friend. Real quick, here’s our puppies. They’re so much bigger than they used to be. Here’s Rosie and Rio. And they say, “Don’t forget to like and subscribe.” Bye, friends.