When the tomatoes get good, here's one I like, and vegetarians always appreciate:
http://verbatim.blogs.com/verbatim/2005/06/another_pasta_s.html

My favorite is Greek Pasta Salad -- with cucumber, tomatoes, red and green peppers, Kalamata olives, onion, feta and red wine vinaigrette dressing. Chicken can be added for an entree salad. Tricolor rotelle pasta is a colorful choice for the salad.

Lou

I know you asked for favorite pasta salads, but this sounds wonderful Elise, and the timing couldn't be better as I have picnic food to prepare for our blues festival up here this weekend. I would use a low glycemic pasta, like Dreamfields, and keep everything else the same.
Thanks!

I combine styles and do a cheese tortelini pesto pasta salad with sundried tomato, black olives, red onion, pine nuts, feta cheese and red/orange or yellow peppers. I made this just over the weekend and it always gets finished up quickly!

Thanks for the great blog - I love lurking here.

Linda

What a coincidence! I just made this salad for the fourth with a few variations. I added one cup of fresh parmesan cheese to the pasta and pesto, then added chopped olives, grape tomatoes, red onions, green peppers, yellow peppers and red peppers to the top so the picky eaters could eat just the veggies they liked. It was such a hit, there were no left overs!

Mmm this sounds great. I like to make my pesto salad by combining penne pasta with marinated artichoke hearts, peas and of course pesto.

I don't make pasta salads in general, but I found this one a year or so ago and rather like it. It's Orzo with Everything from epicurious.com. It also works with quinoa instead of orzo.

OK--my favorite is tuna pasta salad. Consists of (you can figure out the proportions):

Rotini
Canned Tuna
Mayonnaise
Lemon Juice/Worcestershire/Dijon mustard
Balsamic Vinegar
Dash of sugar
Salt/Pepper (of course!!)
Green Onion
Basil and or Dill and or Tarragon (if you have an herb garden like I do...or use dried)
Chopped, seeded tomato

Serve on a bed of romaine or iceberg and with more lemon wedges :)

I happened to make a similar meal after visiting my parents for the 4th of July. They sent me home with, among other glorious things, a squash and some green beans from their garden, plus some pesto made from their own basil.

I sauteed the squash and beans with a chopped up tomato in extra virgin olive oil and white wine, and then I mixed in the pesto. I threw in some extra pine nuts because I love them so much, and tossed the whole thing with Rotini.

In the summer, you really can't go wrong with fresh veggies in pasta.

Hi Elise, it's lunch time here and I wish I could have this right now! It looks so appetising and I love the addition of peas. Great picture, as always.

Hi Elise, I made this salad for a light dinner last night. I have an abundance of Basil and will be making this salad again soon. We all loved it even my little boys. Thanks again for sharing a great recipe.

This is a great one - I've made a similar one many times, but my standby is rotini with lightly steamed red peppers, broccoli and sauteed onions, dressed by good seasons italian dressing (made with balsamic instead of regular vinegar) - it's really easy to make and tastes great.

I don't know if it's called anything; it's just something I came up with one summer day, when I was hungry for something that would fill me up but not cause me to feel heavy after eating.
Rotini (or spiral) pasta
Sliced green and red/yellow peppers
Cucumbers cut into slivers
Grated cheese of preference
Wishbone Romano-basil vinaigrette

I love pasta salads! This one sounds great. Here is my favorite:

artichoke hearts
black olives
roasted red peppers
mushrooms (fresh sauteed or straight from a can)
tricolore rotini
7 seas italian dressing (made with red wine vinegar)

This is terrific. I've made it 3 times since posted, and given the recipe to many friends. I'm like you GOTTA try this. Thanks, another great recipe.

I just made this and my husband and I both loved it - he's a bit picky about non-meat dishes so thanks so much! :)

My favourite pasta salad is this:
Boil pasta, penne preferably, drain and let cool down. Then add just a little olive oil and stir. then add salt, pepper and dried Italian herbs to give the pasta a nice flavour. Mix with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, canned corn kernels, capsicum and whatever other veggies you might like.
Great with chicken and Italian salad dressing.

I made this last night, but left out the peas and added sundried tomatoes. My family loved it!

tri-color radiatore
sun dried tomatoes
roasted red peppers
oil cured olives
artichoke hearts
pickled jalepenos
sliced fresh garlic
olive oil

Cook pasta. Dice all veggies in quantities you like best. Heat oil and garlic until fragrant. add tomatoes, jalepenos, olives, peppers and heat through. Toss with pasta and artichoke hearts. Serve warm or cold.

I have been looking for good salad recipes for a long time, although I am not the biggest pesto fan I finaly gave in, found the pasta pesto recipe & decided to give it a try. Everyone loved it so much! Not even one pine nut could be found in the dish! I enjoyed it just as much & plan on making it again soon.