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This vibrant Spaghetti Salad features tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives, green olives, red onion, and feta cheese. I made Italian dressing from scratch with pantry staples! It’s a crowd-pleasing cold pasta salad perfect for making ahead and sharing with your friends and family as a side dish at Spring and Summer picnics, potlucks, BBQs, or parties.

Easy party-favorite Spaghetti Salad that is ready in 20 minutes!

This crowd-pleasing cold spaghetti salad comes together in just 20 minutes! It’s simple enough to serve as an everyday side dish with your weeknight dinner or for a special occasion when entertaining guests or having company. The salad is easy and is all about quality ingredients. First, I combined the cooked spaghetti pasta with fresh tomatoes, cucumber, green and black olives, red onion, and feta cheese in a large bowl. Then, I tossed all the pasta salad ingredients with my homemade Italian-inspired dressing (made by mixing olive oil, lemon juice, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper in a mason jar). That’s it! I love making this cold pasta salad in advance to share with friends and family at dinner parties, Summer potlucks, barbecues, picnics, and cookouts! It makes a fantastic meatless (and vegetarian!) meal, but I personally like to add protein (such as rotisserie chicken or shrimp) to turn it into a complete meal. For more pasta salad inspiration, check out my delicious Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad or family-favorite Broccoli Ranch Pasta Salad with Bacon, Tomatoes, Sweet Peas, and Cheddar Cheese.

Recipe Highlights

• This flexible recipe is easily adjustable to what you have available. You’re not limited to just spaghetti here – use any kind you like. Use other veggies like bell peppers, mushrooms, or avocado. You can make dressing from scratch or use store-bought Italian or Greek.
• It can be made beforehand and only gets better after being refrigerated. Great for making ahead!
• This cold spaghetti salad is perfect for sharing. Bring it to picnics, potlucks, backyard barbecues, block parties, cookouts, and other festivities. It’s a perfect pasta salad for Spring, Summer, or year-round.
• Perfect for entertaining: it works as an appetizer, side salad, or lunch. You’ll love how vibrant and colorful it is – a great dish to impress your guests.

The Ingredients You Need

• Pasta. You can use any shape you like, including spaghetti, fettuccine, linguine, bucatini, or angel hair pasta. You can also use short-cut pasta, such as bow-tie, penne, rigatoni, fusilli, or orecchiette.
• Tomatoes. I used grape (or cherry) tomatoes in two colors. They make a beautiful presentation, but you can use regular tomatoes, too.
• Cucumber. Use two medium cucumbers or one large one.
• Olives. Use pitted black and green olives.
• Feta cheese has a soft texture and briny flavor. Perfect for mixing in with the spaghetti salad.
• Red onion provides a zesty bite. You don’t need much – only about ¼ cup of chopped onions.

Homemade Italian dressing

• Salad dressing ingredients include extra virgin olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. I recommend using freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice (not bottled) and extra virgin olive oil. I also like adding one tablespoon of honey to balance the flavors.
• Combine all the dressing ingredients in a mason jar and whisk with the fork (or close the jar with the lid and shake it vigorously to blend the flavors).

How to Make Spaghetti Salad

This cold spaghetti salad only takes 20 minutes to make. You can serve it immediately or refrigerate it for up to 4 days. Below is the overview. The detailed recipe (with amounts) is at the bottom of this post (on the recipe card).

1. Cook the pasta in boiling water according to the package instructions. Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain again. In the meantime, proceed with the rest of the recipe.
2. Make salad dressing in a large bowl by combining extra virgin olive oil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, honey, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
3. Prepare the veggies. Add sliced tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, and olives into the same large bowl with the dressing. Toss to combine.
4. Assembly. Add drained cooked pasta and feta cheese to the bowl with veggies. Toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Variations & Substitutions

• Pasta. Even though it’s a spaghetti salad, you can use any pasta you like (or have available!). This includes linguine, fettuccine, angel hair pasta, or bucatini. You can also use short-cut pasta: small shells, fusilli (spiral pasta), bow-tie pasta (farfalle), penne, rigatoni, or rotini.
• Veggies. My favorites are asparagus, bell peppers, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, marinated artichokes, and zucchini.
• Add leafy greens, such as arugula, garden greens, or lettuce.
• Cheese. I used feta cheese. You can also add small Mozzarella balls (pearls), sliced Mozzarella, cubed Parmesan, or grated Parmesan.
• Salad Dressing. I made a dressing from scratch but you can totally use your favorite store-bought Italian or Greek dressing.
• Don’t like red onions?  Try chopped green onions.
• Lime or lemon will work great. Freshly squeezed juice is always the best!

Delicious Add-Ins

• Add prosciutto, bacon, or pepperoni. I like to briefly crisp the prosciutto in the preheated oven at 350 F for about 10 minutes. You can also use chopped cooked bacon, bacon bits, or your favorite kind of pepperoni.
• Add a protein, such as leftover chicken, rotisserie chicken, sauteed or grilled shrimp, or salmon, to turn spaghetti salad into a quick and easy weeknight dinner!
• Add pine nuts as a topping. I like to toast pine nuts briefly (and carefully!) in the oven for an even richer flavor.
• Add capers instead of olives, or add them in addition.
• Add other toppings, such as fresh herbs (basil, thyme, or oregano), chopped green onions, or chopped chives.
• Make it spicy by adding red pepper flakes.