COOK: Triple Pickled Pepper Pasta Salad with Pepperoni and Chicken (or Chickpeas)

• Make-Ahead & Time-Saving Tips
• Vegetarian Variations for Pickled Pepper Pasta Salad
• How to Make Triple Pepper Pasta Salad
• Serving & Storing the Pasta Salad
• Triple Pickled Pepper Pasta Salad with Pepperoni and Chicken (or Chickpeas)

Quick, I have a tongue twister for you: “Pick a peck of triple pickled pepper pasta salad with pepperoni?”.

Say that three times fast?

Then go get a pot of salted water boiling; we’re making a great big batch of pickled pepper pasta salad! It’s got just the right amount of zippy heat without melting your taste-buds.

You can vary the heat level by using mild, medium, or hot giardiniera. I usually use medium or hot because we like it spicy in this house, but you could stick to mild giardiniera if you want to play it safe or are cooking for kids or a mixed crowd.

The roasted bell peppers and pickled pepperoncini peppers have a ton of sweet and tangy flavor without overpowering the other ingredients. This pickled pepper pasta salad is definitely not a bland, boring pasta dish!

Make-Ahead & Time-Saving Tips

This quick pasta salad recipe is scaled to feed a party crowd, or to meal prep a big batch for easy lunches, snacks, and as a side dish or light dinner throughout the week. Or… you could just eat it all in two days during an extreme heat-wave where you don’t want to cook anything else, like we did!

Pro-tip… do all your cooking BEFORE the heat wave, not during, to keep the extra heat out of your house (and check out this article for even more hot-weather cooking ideas that don’t need you to turn on your oven).

But if you procrastinated, like I did, you can probably sweat it out for as long as it takes to boil a pot of water plus about 10 minutes, and then the hard part is over.

You can use diced rotisserie chicken or leftovers in this pasta salad recipe to save time (and keep your kitchen cool). Or, open up a can of diced chicken breast or chickpeas. The pickled and roasted peppers are all jarred, so all you need to do is dice them (if your roasted peppers are whole). So easy!

Vegetarian Variations for Pickled Pepper Pasta Salad

Cooking for a mixed crowd of meat eaters and vegetarians? No problemo!

Add all ingredients but the chicken and pepperoni to a big mixing bowl, mix well, and divide the salad into two large bowls. Scale back the chicken and pepperoni (if you like, or use the same amount for a more substantial salad) and add all of it to one of the bowls.

To the other bowl, add a cup of chickpeas or cannelloni beans and plant-based pepperoni. No veggie salami available? Add more chickpeas and a teaspoon or two of smoked paprika or chipotle pepper to replicate some of the smoky heat that the pepperoni brings to this dish!

How to Make Triple Pepper Pasta Salad

prep ingredients:

• While you are washing & chopping the ingredients for the salad, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat.
• Cover the pot so it boils faster but watch to make sure it doesn’t boil over (it will still boil if you watch it, I promise).
• In a very large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except for the pasta, and mix well.

cook pasta:

• Boil the pasta for the minimum amount of time recommended on the package (10-13 minutes for the pasta I used, so I checked it at 10 minutes).
• You want it still firm but not chewy or dry so it doesn’t get soggy in the dressing.
• Drain the pasta immediately and rinse it with plenty of cold running water.
• With clean hands or a large spoon, stir the pasta and cold water gently and make sure there are no hot-spots. I like to fill the pot again with cold water and then immediately drain the pasta again.
• Shake the colander and drain well.

mix pickled pepper pasta salad:

• Add the cooled pasta to the dressing, meat (or bean) and vegetable mixture, and fold the pasta into the other ingredients, stirring from the bottom and up to the top until it is well combined.
• Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
• Cover bowl and chill salad before serving.

Serving & Storing the Pasta Salad

• This recipe makes a large batch, for parties, meal prep, or big families. You can cut the quantities in half if you need a smaller quantity.
• Portion your pasta salad into meal prep containers, or one large well-wrapped container and refrigerate for up to 3-4 days.
• If you are serving this at a party and it will not all be eaten at once, put out a small bowl at a time and swap out with a fresh bowl when it’s empty!
• Discard any leftover pasta salad that sat out for more than two hours.
• I do not recommend freezing this pasta salad.