The title says it all: feta, pesto, pasta, arugula, and sun-dried tomatoes join forces to create the perfect summer side.
I designed this recipe to be taken outside: to a backyard barbecue, a picnic at the park, a day at the beach, or just out in the grass on your lunch break at work. Somehow, this dish just tastes better when eaten with a side of sunshine and fresh air.
It’s perfect for a hot summer day, and can be made in under 30 minutes with 5 simple store-bought ingredients, plus a little salt and pepper.
To make this quick + easy summer dish, feta gets mashed with a fork and combined with store-bought pesto (I’ve been loving Trader Joes’ Vegan Kale Cashew & Basil Pesto lately, but any store-bought or homemade pesto will work here!) to create a creamy, herbaceous, salty flavor profile for the pasta salad. By mashing the feta into the pesto, we ensure that there’s a little bit in every single bite.
The pasta gets boiled, and then right before draining, sun-dried tomatoes get tossed into the pot to help them soften and stay nice and tender in this dish. If you happen to live somewhere that already has an abundance of juicy, ripe, local cherry tomatoes, feel free to use those instead. Here in Massachusetts, though, we’re still a solid month or more away from the first local tomatoes, so sun-dried it is. Plus, I kinda dig their ultra concentrated, intense tomato flavor.
The warm pasta and sun dried tomatoes get drained and immediately mixed with the pesto, helping to absorb the flavor into the pasta and slightly melt the cheese, creating a creamy pesto sauce to coat every single spiral.
A generous helping of arugula gets stirred in, resulting in a pasta-to-arugula ratio that’s nearly 1:1; this pasta salad is, in fact, equal parts pasta and salad.
To top it all off, the salad gets a final crumble of feta on top, and you’re ready to eat.
This recipe couldn’t be any simpler, and yet it is such a fun, satisfying dish. I used a quinoa and brown rice Fusilli pasta (also a Trader Joe’s find…we love their red lentil pasta, too!) which helps boost up the protein and fiber content in this dish and makes it accidentally gluten-free. If you’re serving this pasta salad to a diverse crowd that has some GF people in it, I’d highly recommend the TJs Fusilli!
Looking for more recipes to bring to a backyard barbecue? Try out my:
Peach, Ricotta, & Honey Crostini,
Heirloom Tomato & Goat Cheese Pie,
Roasted Green Bean & Potato Salad,
Spring Lentil Salad with Roasted Asparagus & Potatoes,
Roasted Rhubarb Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Tart,
or Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies.
And, if you make this Feta Pesto Pasta Salad, be sure to let me know how it turns out! Leave a comment below or take a picture and be sure to tag me in it on Instagram. Happy (almost) Summer, friends!
- 16oz whole grain fusilli (spirals) or other short pasta of choice*
- 1/2 cup roughly chopped sun-dried tomatoes
- 8oz feta cheese, divided
- 8oz store-bought pesto**
- 4 cups baby arugula
- 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper
- 1-2 Tablespoons olive oil, for thinning pesto (optional)
- 1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, then add several pinches of salt and the pasta to the water. Cook according to package directions, or until al dente. When your pasta times goes off, add the sun-dried tomatoes to the boiling water, then drain. This helps the sun-dried tomatoes soften.
- 2. While pasta cooks, mash half of the feta with a fork (you can do this right in your serving bowl, to make less dishes), then stir it into the pesto. Once pasta and sun-dried tomatoes are cooked and drained, pour them straight into the pesto-feta mixture while still hot. Stir to fully coat the pasta in pesto. If your pesto is particularly thick, drizzle in the optional olive oil until the sauce reaches your preferred consistency.
- 3. Add arugula, salt, and pepper to the pasta and toss again to combine. Crumble the remaining feta on top. Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold.
- 4.This pasta salad keeps well in the fridge for up to 5 days, though the pasta may absorb some of the pesto and get a little dry- in this case, and extra drizzle of olive oil helps to bring it back to life.
- *I used Trader Joe's Brown Rice & Quinoa Fusilli- it's a favorite in our house, and happens to be gluten free. Any short pasta you love will work here.
- **I used Trader Joe's Vegan Kale, Cashew & Basil Pesto here, but any store-bought or homemade pesto you love will be great in this salad. I have a Spinach, Asiago, and Walnut pesto recipe on Baked Greens that would be great here. You'll need about 1 cup of pesto.