Goat Cheese Pasta Salad
When summer weather hits that means it is officially pasta salad season! This Goat Cheese Pasta Salad is the perfect dish to serve at your next BBQ, or to bring to a holiday potluck. Creamy, delicious, and full of fresh vegetables, this one will disappear from the table in a flash!
“Liked this a lot! Made it with GF pasta and was great.”
—Sarah
The Goat Cheese Pasta Salad That Earns a Spot at Every Summer Table
Is it even summer if you haven’t made a pasta salad yet? This one leans into everything we love about warm-weather cooking: minimal effort, bright flavors, and ingredients that play really well together.
Whether you’re meal-prepping for the week or pulling together a last-minute side dish for a cookout, this Goat Cheese Pasta Salad shows up with creamy tang, lemony brightness, and just the right amount of veggie crunch.
Goat cheese is perfect for pasta salad recipes because it is creamy, tangy and smooth. It’s pretty amazing that just one ingredient can add so many tasty qualities to your pasta salad dressing.
We also love how easily goat cheese melts to create a smooth dressing. Just a 1/4 cup of hot pasta water will do the trick.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe For Fancy Pasta Salad
- Make-ahead friendly – Prepare it in advance and add the final touches just before serving.
- Versatile – Great as a main dish or a side.
- Fresh and flavorful – Combines the tanginess of goat cheese with the brightness of lemon.
- Perfect for gatherings – A crowd-pleaser that’s easy to transport.
Pasta Salad With Goat Cheese Ingredients
A full recipe card, including exact ingredient amounts, appears at the bottom of this post.
- asparagus – tender green stalks that bring a mild, grassy flavor and a pop of color.
- fusilli or other short pasta – we’ve round that fusilli is the perfect shape to catch all the creamy dressing in its curves, but any type of short pasta works here.
- goat cheese – creamy, tangy, and just funky enough to make things interesting.
- lemon juice – adds brightness and acidity to balance the richness.
- olive oil – smooth and fruity, it forms the base of the dressing for this pasta salad with goat cheese
- Dijon mustard – brings a bit of sharpness and helps emulsify the dressing.
- lemon zest – a fragrant hit of citrus for this fancy pasta salad.
- kosher salt – enhances all the other flavors.
- grape tomatoes – juicy and sweet, they add a burst of freshness right before serving.
How To Make Easy Summer Pasta Salad And Goat Cheese
1. BOIL WATER. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Fill a medium bowl with ice water.
2. COOK ASPARAGUS. Add the asparagus to the boiling water and cook for 1 minute. Drain and immediately transfer to the ice bath. Once cooled, drain and refrigerate.
3. COOK PASTA. Refill the pot with fresh salted water. Cook the pasta according to package instructions until al dente. Reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking water, then drain.
4. MAKE DRESSING. In a large bowl, whisk together most of the goat cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, lemon zest, and salt until smooth. Whisk in the reserved pasta water to create a creamy dressing. Transfer half of this dressing to a small bowl and refrigerate.
5. COMBINE. Add the warm pasta to the large bowl with the remaining dressing. Toss to coat.
6. REFRIGERATE. Refrigerate the pasta for at least one hour or up to three days.
7. DRESS. Just before serving, add the chilled asparagus, grape tomatoes, reserved goat cheese, and remaining dressing. Toss to combine and serve immediately.
Pasta Salad Goat Cheese Home Chef Tips
When you make the dressing, immediately reserve half of it and set it aside. While the pasta is still warm, toss it with just the remaining half of the dressing. Then, just before serving, add the reserved half and toss again.
Warm pasta immediately soaks up whatever dressing it is tossed with, not leaving much moisture behind in the finished dish.
Have you ever noticed that when you sneak a warm noodle right after the salad is dressed, it’s creamy and delicious, but once it’s chilled in the fridge for a few hours, it can be kind of dry?
It almost seems like the dressing disappears sometimes, right? By stirring in the remaining half of the dressing once the noodles are chilled, you’re guaranteed a nicely dressed pasta salad.
Once you make pasta salad this way, you’ll never go back.
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How To Store Leftover Goat Cheese Pasta Salad
A good rule of thumb for prepared noodle salads is three days in the refrigerator. Make sure that if you have this pasta salad with goat cheese set out on a BBQ buffet table, refrigerate it after an hour or so, or place the bowl of pasta salad in a larger bowl filled with ice to keep it chilled.
What Else Can I Put In Goat Cheese Pasta Salad?
Not a fan of tomatoes and asparagus? No worries! We’ve tested this fancy pasta salad recipe with lots of different mix-ins, and we can vouch for any of the following:
- carrots
- spinach
- arugula
- cannellini beans
- crumbled Oven Bacon
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Goat Cheese Pasta Salad
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Ingredients
- ½ bunch asparagus ends trimmed and discarded, cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces
- 8 ounces dried fusilli or other short pasta
- 1 log goat cheese, crumbled, divided 4 ounces
- Juice of 1 lemon
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt plus additional for cooking water
- 1 cup grape tomatoes halved
Instructions
- Heat medium pot of salted water to boiling over high heat. Fill medium bowl with ice water. Add asparagus to boiling water and cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Drain asparagus and immediately transfer to ice water. Let asparagus fully cool in ice water, then transfer asparagus to small bowl and refrigerate.
- Refill medium pot with salted water. Add pasta and cook according to package instructions.
- Meanwhile, place 3 ounces goat cheese, lemon juice, oil, mustard, lemon zest and salt in large bowl and whisk until well combined.
- At end of pasta cooking time, transfer 1/4 cup pasta cooking water to bowl with goat cheese mixture and whisk until smooth. Transfer half of dressing (about 1/2 cup) to small bowl and refrigerate.
- Drain pasta and transfer to bowl with remaining dressing; toss until well combined. Refrigerate one hour or up to 3 days.
- Just before serving, remove pasta from refrigerator and stir in tomatoes, asparagus, remaining 1 ounce goat cheese, and reserved dressing. Serve immediately.
Liked this a lot! Made it with GF pasta and was great (just don’t chill it/ rinse as it toughens the gf pasta. I added a handful of a mixture of finely chopped, mint/basil and parsley at the end. It was really nice! I added the chopped asparagus when 2 minutes left of pasta cooking but make sure you take out 1/4 c of pasta water before (don’t want the asparagus taste!!)
I love to hear that, Sarah! Love the addition of herbs at the end. Yum!
This recipe is lacking seasoning. It’s very tasty but has zero depth.
Hi Ron! Thanks for the feedback. Did you salt your pasta cooking water? And when you say “lacking seasoning,” do you mean just salt, or do you wish it had some other type of seasoning?
Finally!! A pasta salad that is not Italian-flavored. This one sounds absolutely wonderful, so I will find an excuse to try it. Your pasta salad tip makes real sense. My husband does one with hard-boiled eggs, celery & onion, all bound together with mayonnaise. He always does it a day ahead, and then ends up adding more mayo because the pasta has soaked it all up. His will probably always be my favorite, but your recipe I’m sure will be right up there next to my husband’s. 🙂
Yes! I get tired of the “classic” Italian pasta salad. Your husband’s pasta salad sounds great. It’s kind of like the ingredients of a typical potato salad (eggs, celery, onion) in a pasta salad. Definitely tell him about reserving half the dressing and stirring it in at the end. I read about it somewhere else on the internet and I’ll always do it now. I like it because you don’t have to stir in additional mayo/sauce before serving. It’s the same amount you would normally use, but it seems like more, since the noodle don’t soak it ALL up when they’re warm.