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5 from 2 votes

Seven Layer Pasta Salad

This Seven Layer Pasta Salad is a summer classic. Seven layers of flavor with a delicious buttermilk mustard dressing
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: American
Diet: Vegetarian
Servings: 10
Author: Adrianna Adarme
Cost: $9

Ingredients

Dressing: 

  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons minced parsley
  • 2 green onions
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt 
  • 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Seven-Layer Pasta Salad:

  • Kosher salt
  • 1 pound pasta of choice
  • 2 pint of cherry tomatoes halved 
  • 1 bunch of radishes sliced and cut into julienned 
  • 2 cups chopped sugar snap peas
  • 2 handfuls arugula
  • 4 large eggs boiled, cut into quarters

Instructions

To Make the Dressing: 

  • To a medium bowl, add the buttermilk, mayonnaise, parsley, green onions, salt, mustard, pepper and garlic powder. Whisk until smooth. Give it a taste and adjust the salt to taste. 

To Make the Seven-Layered Pasta Salad:

  • Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Pour in the pasta and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. I usually wouldn’t rinse pasta but we’re making pasta salad and we don’t want the pasta to overcook. Drizzle the pasta with about 2 teaspoons of olive oil and give it a good mix. You can do this all in the colander; we’re doing this so the pasta doesn’t stick. 
  • To a glass bowl—we gotta see the layers!—add the dressing. Top it with the pasta. Don’t be shy to arrange it into one even layer. Repeat with the cherry tomatoes, radishes, snap peas and arugula. Top with boiled egg quarters. This is a great make-ahead salad. 
  • Right when you’re ready to serve the salad, toss it all together and divide amongst bowls. 

Notes

Tips and Tricks:
  • Avoid soggy pasta salad. The BEST part about this recipe is that you can prep it up to one day before, wrap it in plastic and stick it in the fridge. The individual layers keep everything fresh and nothing will get soggy. Toss it together before serving.
  • Avoid the pasta from sticking. After it's done cooking, rinse it with water and toss it with a teaspoon of olive oil. This will help it from sticking.
  • Add the dressing to the bottom of the bowl. This way it doesn't make everything soggy. We can toss it in its dressing just before serving.

Nutrition

Serving: 10g | Calories: 280kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.03g | Cholesterol: 71mg | Sodium: 351mg | Potassium: 169mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 242IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 43mg | Iron: 1mg