Italian Chopped Salad
Updated
Updated
This Italian Chopped Salad is a light, yet hearty salad that tastes like your favorite Italian sub sandwich but with pasta instead of the bread!
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5 STAR REVIEWS
This Italian Chopped Salad is one of my all-time favorites – I make it often since I always have the ingredients on hand. It tastes like a fantastic Italian sub sandwich, but with pasta in place of the bread. So flavorful and healthy, and since the ingredients are all chopped, every bite has all the goodies!
Perfectly served on its own since it’s hearty and filling, but wonderful as a side dish, too. I often bring it to summer barbecues and potlucks. Everyone loves it!
Helpful Tips & Variations
- Use tiny pasta. This salad is best made with a tiny pasta. My favorite is Ditalini. If you can’t find it, macaroni or mini shells is a good substitute.
- Summer sausage. I love this cured smoked sausage in salads. It’s a little tangy and so delicious. If you can’t find it, mini pepperoni is a good replacement. If you need the salad to be vegetarian, simply omit it.
- Chickpeas. Also known as garbanzo beans. They’re so versatile with a slightly nutty flavor, rich in protein, fiber, and various vitamins and minerals. I personally wouldn’t replace them but if you must, cannellini, navy, or butter beans offer a similar texture.
- Cheese. Provolone is my preferred cheese for this salad because it’s mild and buttery, with a subtle nutty flavor. Mozzarella can be used instead, if you prefer.
- Marinated artichoke hearts. Wonderfully tangy, citrus-y, and earthy, I love these in this salad.
- Pimento stuffed olives. These add a nice salty, zesty flavor. Hate olives? Simply leave them out.
- The dressing. I use our favorite homemade Italian Dressing, which is a simple vinaigrette made with olive oil, red wine vinegar, Parmesan cheese, honey, lemon juice, garlic, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and our Italian Seasoning blend. It’s light, bright, and super easy to whip up. But you can use store-bought to make it even quicker, if preferred.
Italian Chopped Salad
Ingredients
FOR THE SALAD
- 1 & 1/4 cups dry ditalini pasta
- 3 cups chopped Romaine lettuce
- 15 once (1 can) garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained
- 1 cup cubed summer sausage
- 1 cup cubed Provolone cheese, (or Mozzarella)
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
- 1/4 cup pimento stuffed olives, halved
- 1/2 cup diced scallions
FOR THE DRESSING
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup olive oil
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil; cook pasta until al dente according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water. Drizzle with a little olive oil to prevent sticking.
- In a large bowl, add the cooked pasta, Romaine, chickpeas, sausage, cheese, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, and green onions.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together all the the ingredients for the dressing, except the olive oil. Then slowly stream in the olive oil to emulsify. (Alternatively, you can place all the ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake until completely combined and thickened.) Drizzle over all the salad ingredients and gently toss to coat.
- Serve immediately or chill for an hour and enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and any changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are very important to you, I would recommend calculating them yourself.
Did you make this? Leave a rating below!
Make Ahead and Storing Leftovers
- The dressing. The dressing can be made up to 1 week in advance, so the day you assemble the salad is even quicker. Give it a vigorous shake, to reincorporate all the ingredients, before pouring over the salad.
- Storing leftovers. Once the salad is assembled and dressed, it needs to be refrigerated in an airtight container (if not serving right away.) Same goes for leftovers. Store, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. However, the longer it sits, the longer the pasta soaks up the dressing and can become mushy and the lettuce loses all its crunch. We prefer this salad served a couple hours after it’s prepared.
More Pasta Salad Recipes:
- Greek Pasta Salad
- Cashew Chicken Pasta Salad
- Chicken Broccoli Pasta Salad
- Cowboy Pasta Salad
- Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad
I hope you love this delicious and easy recipe – be sure to give it a review below! Also don’t forget to follow Belly Full on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube!
Enjoying this for lunch now. Outstanding! Subbed sausage for Rosemary ham and OMG, just delicious!
This is so delicious! I used turkey sausage and added black olives, just because I like them… I’ll be making this weekly! Thanks for the great recipe!
I have enjoyed making this recipe for my family and events. It’s always a favorite!
You are the BEST
I’ve made this twice for a crowd and everyone loves it. Thanks for a great recipe
I substituted spinach for the romaine lettuce and it made it even better.
Made this for a potluck and it was all everyone raved about – even over all the desserts. GREAT recipe!
Just found this recipe. It looks delicious. I wound probably add chopped fresh basil into the mix. ???
I noticed the dressing didn’t include the lemon juice you mentioned. How much do you use? I’m shopping for the ingredients this week!
This is a winner. Made it as a side for a church dinner. Rave reviews. I used mini pepperoni in place of summer sausage. It is the perfect size and adds the perfect flavor for an Italian salad. Also, chopped Vidalia onion is good too.
I’m not a fan of summer sausage, what would be a good substitution? And.. thank you for having a dressing that doesn’t include mayonnaise :)
Hi Lisa – Do you like ham? That would work.
Delicious mix of flavors
Made as written, but left out the olives since my family doesn’t like them. This was outstanding.
What a beautiful salad, and it could be adjusted to taste! I am a huge salad fan and always appreciate new salad inspiration. Thanks for this.
Delicious salad! Huge hit at my quilt retreat. So sorry you had pneumonia. Had it once. Thought it was the end. Take care.
Looks yummy, what do you consider summer sausage, the picture resembles genoa salami?
It is similar to salami in taste, but it is not sliced thin. It comes in a large, long tube-like package. I would recommend Googling it to see what it looks like.
Thank you for this recipe. I made exactly as instructed and took it to a potluck. It was delicious. I will definitely make it again.
Made this for dinner and left overs are for lunches! Used black olives instead of green. Delicious and my kids like it too!
My new favorite salad – this was SO good!
How many calories are in the Italian chopped salad?
I just made this Italian Salad, and it is fantastic!!
I used grape tomatoes. This was fantastic!
Cherry tomatoes can be small as in picture or larger, quarter size. Larger ones would be best cut into 4ths so as to be the same size as other imgredients. That is often what is done in a chopped salad. Same size ingredients.
This salad has the best of everything going on – I didn’t want to stop eating it!
This Italian chopped salad is absolutely delicious. Thank you for this wonderful recipe.