Pasta Salads That Go Beyond Mayonnaise

Chef Name: Giada De Laurentiis

Full Recipe Name: Orecchiette with Mixed Greens and Goat Cheese

Talent Recipe: Giada De Laurentiis’ Orecchiette with Mixed Greens and Goat Cheese, as seen on Food Network’s Everyday Italian

FNK Recipe: 

Project: Foodnetwork.com, CINCO/SUMMER/FATHERSDAY

Show Name: Everyday Italian

GiadaDeLaurentiis_OrecchietteWithMixedGreensAndGoatCheese_H

Chef Name: Giada De Laurentiis Full Recipe Name: Orecchiette with Mixed Greens and Goat Cheese Talent Recipe: Giada De Laurentiis’ Orecchiette with Mixed Greens and Goat Cheese, as seen on Food Network’s Everyday Italian FNK Recipe: Project: Foodnetwork.com, CINCO/SUMMER/FATHERSDAY Show Name: Everyday Italian

Photo by: Renee Comet ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.

Renee Comet, 2013, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.

It's time to reinvent the pasta salad. Use your noodle to think outside the mayonnaise bottle for your next picnic, with interesting flavor combinations like Giada De Laurentiis' orecchiette with mixed greens and goat cheese (pictured above) and zesty green-onion dressing tossed with bowtie pasta.

Check out four more of our favorite pasta salad recipes below — only one of which uses mayonnaise for creaminess — and get more camping recipes and picnic ideas here.

Photo by: Stephen Murello ©Stephen Murello

Stephen Murello, Stephen Murello

Toasted coconut adds a touch of sweetness to the tangy green-onion vinaigrette in Roger Mooking's bowtie pasta salad.

Giada's take on the classic Italian salad has peppery arugula, salty ricotta salata and sweet-and-tart dried cherries.

Hosts Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott's dish, Macaroni Icebox Salad with Creamy Red Wine Vinaigrette, for their Spring Picnic, as seen on Cooking Channel’s Tori & Dean Specials, Tori & Dean’s Spring Picnic.

Hosts Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott's dish, Macaroni Icebox Salad with Creamy Red Wine Vinaigrette, for their Spring Picnic, as seen on Cooking Channel’s Tori & Dean Specials, Tori & Dean’s Spring Picnic.

Photo by: Eddy Chen ©2015, Cooking Channel, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Eddy Chen, 2015, Cooking Channel, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

This Instagram-worthy salad layers up broccolini, ham, celery, bell peppers, iceberg lettuce and cheddar cheese, but feel free to throw in any of your favorite ingredients.

Photo by: Stephen Murello ©Stephen Murello

Stephen Murello, Stephen Murello

Nigella Lawson uses cured mortadella for a more upscale version of a ham pasta salad. It can be tossed together in 15 minutes with a mustard-Parmesan vinaigrette.

More pasta salads from our friends:
Homemade Delish: Spring Orzo Salad

Elephants and the Coconut Trees: Chicken Pasta Salad with Peanut Butter Dressing

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