Caesar Pasta Salad Recipe

This quick and easy Caesar Pasta Salad Recipe is filled with tender pasta and crisp Romaine lettuce with a zippy Caesar dressing. 

Pasta salads are great for taking to parties and potlucks. We also love this Italian Pasta Salad and Classic Macaroni Salad!

This easy pasta salad is great as a side dish, or you can amp it up with these Chicken Parmesan Bites or Grilled Shrimp to make it a full meal.

Caesar Pasta Salad Recipe

When it comes to bringing a side dish to a cookout, party or potluck, this recipe is by far one of the simplest to make and loved by all.

It’s always a slam dunk, and everyone truly enjoys it.

Ingredients Needed For Caesar Pasta Salad –

Here’s the basic list of ingredients you’ll need in order to make this simple pasta salad. As always, you can find the full list of ingredients in the recipe card below.

• Bowtie Pasta – or other small pasta
• Romaine Lettuce
• Caesar Salad Dressing – homemade or store bought
• Parmesan Cheese
• Croutons
• Black Pepper

How To Assemble Pasta Salad

Timing is everything when it comes to this Caesar Salad. Ideally, you want to wait till you’re just about ready to serve to toss everything together.

The croutons can get soggy if mixed in with the other ingredients too early.

• BOIL PASTA   Cook your pasta according to package instructions, then rinse and run under cool water to stop the cooking process and remove any excess starches. Drain completely and add to a large bowl.
• CHOP LETTUCE   I love using Romain hearts for this recipe because it’s crisp, bright green and not too leafy. Clean the Romaine lettuce and chop it up, or better yet, find a prepared bag of pre-chopped Romaine lettuce to make it even quicker!
• CAESAR DRESSING   I may be biased, but I LOVE my homemade Caesar dressing. You can either make it from scratch or just buy your favorite, good quality, dressing from the store.
• COMBINE    Once all your ingredients are prepped and ready, you can simply toss them all together in a large bowl and serve immediately!

Can You Prepare Ahead Of Time?

While you can get all of the ingredients prepped and ready to go ahead of time, please wait until you’re ready to serve to assemble everything.

The pasta can be prepared ahead of time and stored in an air tight container in the fridge until ready to use.

I’ll typically cook the pasta ahead of time, making it so much quicker to pull this salad together for a party.

More Pasta Salad Recipes

Pasta salads are one of my favorite side dishes because there are just so many of them with all sorts of flavors, textures and ingredients. Here are a few more delicious pasta salad recipes you can try…

• Easy Spaghetti Pasta Salad
• Italian Tortellini Pasta Salad
• Shrimp Pasta Salad
• Greek Pasta Salad
• Creamy BLT Pasta Salad

How Much Pasta Salad Should I Make?

If you’re trying to prepare a pasta salad for a party or potluck, and you’re not sure how much you should make, let this be a guide for you…

• SIDE DISH – plan for about 1 cup of pasta salad per person
• MAIN DISH – plan for about 2 cups of pasta salad per person

This recipe makes about 12 cups of pasta salad, so I’ve calculated it to serve 12 people as a side dish. If you add chicken or shrimp, and serve as a main dish, you would get about 6 servings out of it.

I can’t wait for you to give this easy Caesar pasta salad recipe a try! I hope you enjoy it!

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