Goat Cheese Pasta Salad
This creamy goat cheese pasta salad is simple to put together and will become a family favorite! Customize with any vegetables you like.
When it comes to pasta salad, the options are endless, and it’s almost always good.
Growing up in the 80’s in the Midwest, my pasta salad experiences revolved around baby back ribs (hopefully with the best dry rub for ribs on them) paired with my mom’s classic mustard/mayo/celery/onion macaroni salad (I haven’t yet shared that recipe here, but maybe someday), and old school Italian dressing pasta salad.
You know the kind I mean. And it wasn’t along the lines of something updated like Asian cold noodle salad or acini de pepe pasta, or fancy like pasta seafood salad.
Today, I’m sharing a gourmet take on a classic: pasta salad with goat cheese dressing. It’s perfect alongside steak lettuce wraps, and it’s one of my very favorite ribs side dishes.
I’m also sharing a simple tip to make the best pasta salad ever.
What is in Goat Cheese Pasta Salad?
- The noodle and vegetable situation is very flexible. I recommend a short, twirly shape of pasta like fusilli so that the dressing can soak into all the nooks and crannies of the noodles (I like this shape for salmon pesto pasta, also). I used fresh asparagus (when I’m not making asparagus roasted) and red and yellow grape tomatoes in my salad, but I have more mix-in ideas for you below!
- The goat cheese pasta salad dressing is made from a few simple ingredients:
- crumbled goat cheese
- lemon juice and zest
- olive oil
- Dijon mustard
- kosher salt
- pasta cooking water
Why use goat cheese in pasta salad?
Three words: creamy, tangy and smooth. It’s pretty amazing that just one ingredient can add so many tasty qualities to your pasta salad dressing.
I 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.
I’ve been using goat cheese in my recipes like salad for Christmas, sweet potato breakfast bake and breakfast egg muffins for years (I’ve even been known to toss it into elote corn salad when I don’t have cotija for feta), so I can promise you it is the perfect ingredient for your next pasta salad.
Goat cheese is made with goat’s milk and traditional French cheese making techniques, leading to a rich and smooth texture.
If you haven’t tried goat cheese before, I think you’ll love it. My fried goat cheese salad is a sure-fire way to introduce yourself to loving goat cheese! Or, bookmark my cranberry goat cheese appetizer for Thanksgiving!
Just save the blueberry vanilla goat cheese for Easter charcuterie board, OK?
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A simple tip for making the best pasta salad ever:
This works with pretty much any pasta salad recipe: 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 alongside a nice flat iron steak on grill, add the reserved half and toss again.
Why do this? Because 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 already chilled, you’re guaranteed a nicely dressed pasta salad.
Once you make pasta salad this way, you’ll never go back.
How long does pasta salad stay good for?
A good rule of thumb for prepared noodle salads is three days in the refrigerator.
What else can I put in goat cheese pasta salad?
Not a fan of tomatoes and asparagus? No worries! I’ve tested this recipe with lots of different mix-ins, and I can vouch for any of the following:
- carrots
- spinach
- arugula
- cannelini beans
- bacon in the oven
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Goat Cheese Pasta Salad
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.
Notes
- While the pasta is still warm, toss it with just the remaining half of the dressing. Then, just before serving alongside a nice flat iron steak on grill, add the reserved half and toss again.
- Why do this? Because warm pasta immediately soaks up whatever dressing it is tossed with, not leaving much moisture behind in the finished dish.
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.