Triple Pickled Pepper Pasta Salad with Pepperoni and Chicken (or Chickpeas)
Scaled for a crowd or a great meal prep recipe... you won't get tired of eating this zippy and flavorful pasta salad! Make it vegetarian by swapping the chicken for chickpeas and using plant-based pepperoni instead of the real stuff. Either way, it's a great side dish for grilled meats or veggies, or enjoy on its own as a light entree salad or lunch.
Ingredients
- 24 oz rotini or fusili one and a half standard boxes of pasta
- 1 ½ cup roasted or rotisserie chicken (or drained canned chicken breast) substitute chickpeas or cannelloni beans and omit pepperoni for vegetarian version
- ⅓ cup pepperoni, diced (or sliced in thin strips) substitute plant-based pepperoni for veggie version
- ½ cup roasted red peppers, diced fresh roasted, peeled, & seeded or jarred is fine
- ¼ cup pickled pepperonci peppers (or sweet banana peppers), sliced
- ¼ cup giardiniera
- 1-2 tbsp pickled garlic (or fresh chopped garlic)
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup mayonaisse
- ½ cup olive brine or pickled pepper brine substitute wine vinegar + 1 tsp salt & 1 tsp sugar
- ⅔ cup grated parmesan cheese
- ½ cup greens and/or fresh herbs, chopped mix of parsley, basil, purslane, arugula, chives, or chopped baby greens
- 1 tsp oregano leaf, dried can sub 2 tsp fresh chopped oregano
- to taste black pepper, freshly ground
Instructions
- While you are 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 the other ingredients and mix well.
- 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 it 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.
- 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. This is a large batch, for parties or meal prep. 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!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
