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!
Don’t miss our other salad recipes for all your summer entertaining!
Italian Chopped Salad Recipe
This Italian Chopped Salad is one of my all-time favorites – I make it often since I always have the ingredients on hand. 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. It tastes like a fantastic Italian sub sandwich, but with pasta in place of the bread. I often bring it to summer barbecues and potlucks. Everyone loves it!
Ingredients Needed
Chopped Italian Salad Ingredients include the following:
(Scroll below to the printable recipe card for details and measurements.)
- Pasta – Ditalini is the base of this salad and one of my favorite tiny noodles. If you can’t find it, macaroni is a good substitute.
- Lettuce – Romaine is fresh crisp, and a beautiful green. You could also use iceberg and/or spinach.
- Chickpeas – Canned for ease.
- Summer sausage – We love this meat in salads. It’s a little tangy and so delicious. If you need the salad to be vegetarian, simply omit it.
- Provolone – This cheese is mild and buttery, with a subtle nutty flavor. We love it. Mozzarella can be used instead, if you prefer.
- Cherry tomatoes – These sweet juicy gems balance out the crisp lettuce and pasta.
- Marinated artichoke hearts – Wonderfully tangy, citrus-y, and earthy, we love these in this salad.
- Pimento stuffed olives – These add a nice salty, zesty flavor. Olives not your thing? Leave them out.
- Green onions – For a subtle onion, peppery flavor.
- Dressing – We 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.
Video: How to Make Italian Chopped Salad
To make this Italian Chopped Salad recipe, simply scroll down to the printable recipe card for details and measurements, and don’t miss the video 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!
Italian Chopped Salad
Ingredients
FOR THE SALAD
- 1 cup ditalini pasta
- 3 cups chopped Romaine lettuce
- 15 once (1 can) garbanzo beans (chickpeas) ,drained
- 1 cup cubed summer sausage
- 1 cup cubed Provolone (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 green onions
FOR THE DRESSING
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 cloves garlic ,minced
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin 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!
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. ???
This is a winner. Made this as a side for a church Wednesday night dinner. Rave reviews. I suggest using 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.