Italian Pasta Salad – A lightened-up version of the classic Summer pasta Salad loaded with cherry tomatoes, turkey pepperoni, mozzarella balls, and cucumbers.
Pasta Salads are pretty much a blank canvas and you can add to them whatever your little heart desires! The hardest part about making them is probably boiling the noodles and doing all the prep work. If you don’t know how to boil noodles by now, there’s probably plenty of youtube videos of that online. Don’t like cucumber? Leave them out. Like olives? Add them to this dish. This is just what I really liked and those peperoncino peppers are really good! Just give them a try if you’ve never had them before.
What is Peperonicino?
Peperoncino (Italian: [peperonˈtʃiːno]; plural peperoncini [-ni]; sometimes spelled pepperoncino or pepperoncini in English)[a] is the generic Italian name for hot chili peppers, specifically the cultivars of the species Capsicum annuum and Capsicum frutescens.[2] The sweet pepper is called peperone (plural peperoni) in Italian.[3] (source: From wikipedia) \
How to Lighten Up Italian Pasta Salad
In order to lighten up this classic Summer pasta salad I used lite Italian Dressing, zero point vegetables such as cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and pepperoni. Use Turkey pepperoni and fresh mozzarella balls. You could always buy the blocks of cheese and cut them up into tiny cubes if you prefer that instead of mozzarella balls, but tiny mozzarella balls are almost too cute to pass up and they are a must in this salad. Don’t overdress your pasta salad and you can still have pasta salad as a side dish this Summer.
What else can you add to Italian Pasta Salad ?
Black Olives
Bell Peppers
Parmesan Cheese
Pesto sauce instead of Italian Dressing ( but that would be more points
Red Onion too make the pasta more colorful
Looking for more pasta salad recipes? Try BLT Pasta Salad and Greek Orzo Salad with Mustard Dill Vinaigrette,
Video for Italian Pasta Salad:
Italian Pasta Salad – Weight Watchers
- Yield: 9 1x
Ingredients
- 8 Ounces pasta
- 1½ Cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
- 1½ Cups cucumber
- 4 Ounces mozzarella balls
- 4 Ounces pepperoni
- ½ Cups pepperocini
- 4 oz Teaspoons Italian Dressing
Instructions
- Fill a medium pot with water and bring the water to a boil. Add the dry pasta and cook the pasta until al dente. (About 8 minutes). Drain the pasta and set it aside.
- Cut the cherry tomatoes in half lengthwise and the cucumbers into tiny half-moon pieces.
- Add the pasta to the bowl along with the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, mozzarella, pepperoni, and Italian Dressing. Toss until well combined. Makes 4 servings.
Notes
myWW points: Blue 5; Green 5; Purple 5
Points are calculated with the WW recipe builder app and not using the nutrition info.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 280
- Sugar: 4
- Fat: 21
- Saturated Fat: 6
- Unsaturated Fat: 11
- Carbohydrates: 17
- Fiber: 8
- Protein: 8
Keywords: italian pasta salad
Jenna says
The serving size is correct. If you have the WW app you can plug in the recipe there. That way you can get a correct serving size if you come up with a different amount.
Beth Gard says
Hello! I just made this and wanted to confirm the serving size. Thanks!