The Pasta Salad That Looks Like Summer
Some recipes just look like summer. This is one of them. Bright green dressing, sliced avocado, crispy prosciutto, fresh basil, cherry tomatoes piled into a big bowl of cold pasta. It is the kind of thing you want to eat outside, preferably at a table with people you like.
The Green Goddess dressing is the whole personality of this salad. It is herby and creamy and a little tangy, and it coats every spiral of pasta in a way that makes the whole bowl taste fresh and alive. If you have the book, you already have the dressing recipe. If this is your first introduction to it, consider this your invitation to make it immediately.
The prosciutto is not optional in my opinion, even though I listed it as an ingredient and not a requirement. Here is why: without it, this is a very good pasta salad. With it, this is a pasta salad that has crispy, salty, savory little pieces tucked into every bite that balance out the creamy dressing and the rich avocado. It takes five minutes to crisp in a pan and it completely changes what this dish is. Do the prosciutto.
This one works as a side dish for grilled anything, or as a lunch on its own. It is filling without being heavy. And it is genuinely fast to pull together, which matters on a warm day when you do not want to spend an hour in the kitchen.
Why This Recipe Works
The balance here is what makes it work. Creamy dressing, rich avocado, salty crispy prosciutto, bright acidic tomatoes, and fresh basil. Every element is pulling in a slightly different direction and the result is a bowl that has something happening in every single bite.
Green Goddess dressing is doing the heavy lifting. It is herby and tangy and creamy all at once, which means it can handle the richness of the avocado without the whole salad feeling like too much. A plain mayo-based dressing would make this bowl feel dense. The Green Goddess keeps it feeling fresh.
Crisping the prosciutto before adding it is a step worth taking seriously. Prosciutto straight from the package is delicate and almost silky. It is delicious, but it gets lost in a pasta salad. When you crisp it in a hot pan, it becomes something else entirely. Crackly, deeply savory, a little caramelized at the edges. Those pieces scattered through the salad add a texture and flavor contrast that makes the whole dish more interesting.
The avocado goes in last, folded in gently, because it needs to be treated carefully. Stir it too aggressively and it turns into green mush throughout the dressing. Fold it in right before serving and you get actual slices, actual creaminess, actual bites of avocado. That matters for both the flavor and the look of the bowl.
And the chill time at the end is not just a suggestion. Twenty to thirty minutes in the fridge gives the pasta time to absorb the dressing so it is not sitting in a pool of it, and it brings all the flavors together. Cold pasta salad served straight from the mixing bowl is fine. Cold pasta salad that has had time to rest is noticeably better.
Let’s Talk Ingredients
12 oz Spiral Pasta (Rotini), Cooked and Cooled
Rotini is the move for the same reason it works in the summer pasta salad: the spirals grip the dressing. With a creamy herb dressing like Green Goddess, you want every piece of pasta to be coated, not just swimming in it. The spirals do that work.
Cook it until just al dente, not fully soft, and rinse it with cold water until completely cooled before anything else goes in the bowl. Warm pasta will wilt the basil, partially melt the dressing, and make the avocado turn brown faster. Cold pasta is not negotiable here.
1 Cup Green Goddess Dressing
The recipe is in the book, and it is worth making. Green Goddess dressing is typically built on a base of mayo or sour cream, fresh herbs like basil, parsley, chives, and tarragon, lemon juice or vinegar, and garlic. The result is a dressing that is creamy and herby and bright, and it works in this recipe in a way that a store-bought Green Goddess dressing mostly does not.
If you do not have the book yet and you need to use store-bought, look for a version that is genuinely herby and not just green-tinted ranch. The herb flavor is what the whole salad is built around. A bland dressing will make the whole bowl fall flat.
1 Cup Cherry Tomatoes, Sliced
Halve them. Whole cherry tomatoes in a pasta salad are awkward to eat and they do not contribute as much flavor as halved ones, which release a little juice and absorb a little dressing as they sit. Sweet cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes both work well. The acidity and sweetness cut through the richness of the avocado and the creaminess of the dressing in exactly the right way.
4 to 6 Slices Prosciutto
The crisping step is everything. Get a skillet hot over medium heat, no oil needed since prosciutto has enough fat in it, and lay the slices flat. They will shrink and curl. Let them go until they are golden and crisp, about two to three minutes per side. They will firm up even more as they cool. Once cooled, chop or crumble them into pieces and add them to the bowl. The salty, crispy contrast against the creamy dressing and soft avocado is genuinely one of the best things about this recipe.
1 Avocado, Sliced
Ripe but not overripe. Press the outside of the avocado gently. It should give slightly but not feel mushy. An underripe avocado is firm and flavorless. An overripe one is stringy and brown inside and will fall apart when you fold it in. Ripe is the target.
Slice it rather than cubing it. You get better, more visible pieces in the finished salad, and it looks nicer in the bowl. Add it last, fold it in gently with a spatula rather than a spoon, and serve soon after. Avocado starts to brown once it is cut and exposed to air, so this is not a salad you want to make a full day ahead.
1/4 Cup Fresh Basil, Chopped
Fresh basil only. Dried basil in a cold pasta salad is a mistake. It has none of the brightness of fresh and the texture is wrong in a cold dish. Basil and Green Goddess dressing are both herby, and they layer together really well here. Chop it just before adding it so it does not oxidize and turn black before it even hits the bowl. Thin ribbons or rough chop both work fine.
Salt and Pepper, to Taste
The prosciutto is salty. The dressing is seasoned. Taste before you add anything and adjust from there. You might need very little salt and a generous amount of black pepper. Fresh cracked pepper over the top before serving is a nice finishing touch.
A Note on Timing (Because Avocado Is Involved)
This is not the pasta salad you make three days ahead and eat all week. The avocado changes that equation. Once it is cut and folded in, the clock starts. It will start to brown within a few hours regardless of what you do, and by the next day it will not look great.
Here is the strategy that works: make everything else ahead. Cook and cool the pasta, crisp the prosciutto, slice the tomatoes, chop the basil, mix the dressing in. You can do all of that the night before or the morning of and keep it covered in the fridge. Then right before you serve it, slice the avocado, fold it in gently, and you are done. The whole thing comes together in about two minutes at that point.
If you are bringing this to a cookout or a party, this is the method to use. Transport everything in the bowl without the avocado, add the avocado on-site, give it a gentle toss, and it looks freshly made because it essentially is.
A squeeze of lemon juice over the sliced avocado before folding it in will slow the browning slightly. It also adds a small brightness to the finished salad that plays well with the herby dressing. Worth doing even if timing is not a concern.
If you do end up with leftovers and the avocado has browned overnight, the salad still tastes fine. It just does not look as good. Scoop off any very brown pieces if you want and eat the rest. The pasta, tomatoes, and prosciutto all hold up well for two days in the fridge.