Turn a classic French salad into the perfect pasta salad for your light lunch or summer picnic. Niçoise pasta salad has all the classic flavors but swaps the traditional lettuce for pasta.
A traditional Niçoise salad is made up of tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, olives and anchovies. You’ll find quite a lot of variation in the ingredients and dressing though with the more modern version including potatoes and green beans such as this Niçoise pasta salad had.
While it isn’t part of the classic recipe, I love adding a little tuna to my Niçoise pasta salad. It gives the salad a little extra protein and turns it from a side dish to the perfect light lunch. I definitely recommend choosing a tuna in olive oil for extra flavor.
The dressing for this Niçoise pasta salad is a combination of garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, Dijon mustard and shallot. The shallot has a lighter, sweeter flavor than a standard onion making it perfect for salad dressings.
The anchoives are definitely optional here but they add a delicious brininess to the salad. I mince mine really tiny so no one knows they are in there.
I know a lot of people shy away from a salad Niçoise recipe because of the anchovies! But, once you make this Niçoise pasta salad, your entire opinion of Niçoise salad is bound to change. This pasta side dish is so light and fresh but full of ingredients that are so good for you! It makes the absolute perfect summer salad!
If you make this Niçoise pasta salad or any other recipe from the blog, I’d love to hear about your experience. Let me know if the comments or snap a photo and tag it #MySuburbanKitchen on Instagram or Twitter.
If you enjoyed this Niçoise pasta salad, be sure to try these other easy pasta salad recipes:
Essential items for this simple salad:
- Mixing bowls
- Whisk
- 16 oz bow tie pasta cooked al dente
- 6 oz tuna packed in olive oil
- 1 lb small red potatoes quartered and steamed
- 1/2 lb haricot verts {or small green beans} trimmed and steamed
- 1/2 cup minced black olives
- 4 hard boiled eggs roughly chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- 2 green onions chopped
- 1/4 cup basil chopped
- 3 oil packed anchovies finely chopped {optional}
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 3 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 shallot minced
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For the dressing: In a medium bowl, combine all dressing ingredients (garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, Dijon mustard and shallot) and stir with a whisk until combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.
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In a large bowl, combine the pasta through tomatoes and toss to combine. Add anchovies if using and then pour dressing over salad and toss. Top pasta salad with green onions and chopped basil. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
That is definitely one beautiful pasta salad! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
Hmmm. I might be brave enough to try anchovies in a salad like this! Looks yummy.
The anchoives definitely add nice flavor dimension to the salad. If you mince them, you won’t even notice the texture either.
This looks so incredibly delicious! Thanks for some dinner inspiration!
Thanks! This is definitely a super easy to make salad. Hope you give it a try.
That looks delish!
Thanks!
I’d love love love it, except I hate tuna with a vengeance. However I can see how to add other ingredients instead of it.
Oh…hmmm…I guess you could easily do a different type of white fish or perhaps shredded chicken.
Delicious and healthy – my kind of recipe!
Thanks! I love working with tuna because it is so lot but packed with protein.
This looks delicious. I like salad but sometimes I bore with it because I don’t have to many recipes. I will definitely add this one to my rotation.
Definitely give this one a try if you are bored with all your regular salads. It has a ton of flavor!
It looks delicious and your pictures are beautiful!
Thanks! I am still working hard at the picture thing though. Cooking is easy by comparison 🙂
This is SO beautiful and looks so good too. I’m bookmarking this to make this week! Thanks for posting this!
Thanks! I love all the bright colors of the veggies that go with the salad.
my husband would be all over this- he’s big into tuna, especially lately. hmmm. now that it’s cooler he can bring stuff like this for his lunches on the road!!
Great idea for making this for lunches!
YUM.. I love pasta salad and this looks like a great meal; tuna, veggies and pasta.. what more do you wan. LOVE the colors.. thanks for sharing, sooo gonna add it to my meal plan soon.
This is definitely one of those pasta salads that you can use as a side or a main dish. It is full of so many yummy ingredients that you may not want anything else.
This looks like a great recipe and so easy to do!!
Thanks! It is really simple to put together.
This is an absolutely beautiful salad. Love your choice of pasta in this.
Thanks! I wanted a noodle that the tuna would sit on well.
Looks delicious! My kids and hubby would love it 🙂
Thanks! It quickly became a favorite in our house too.
Your Nicoise Pasta Salad looks awesome and great photos to tease and make me hungry!
Thanks!
mmm LOVE pasta salad! This looks awesome!
Thanks!
Yum fresh and creamy pasta salad – I’m in the like it group, too. Thanks for sharing at Inspire Us Thursday on Organized 31.
Thanks! I love how light and fresh this tastes.
I’ m totally making this!
I hope you do!
I’ve never had this brand of tuna before…I’ll have to look for it! Thanks for the amazing recipe!
I had never tried it before either but so glad I did. It tastes so fresh and I love that I can find out about exactly where it came from by using the code on the packaging.
Great job! Thanks for all your hard work on this campaign! Your pasta salad looks amazing. #client
Thanks Sara! This has definitely become a new favorite in our household. I love working with quality products that I can feel great about feeding my family and recommending to my readers.
Love this, such a great recipe!
Thanks! It has a lot of flavor for sure. Thanks for visiting.
I LOVE pasta salads! I will have to give this a try 🙂
I am a huge pasta salad fan too. They combine so many of my favorite things: pasta, vegetables and dressing! Thanks for coming by.
This looks so yummy! Thanks for sharing it at Show & Share last week, it was the most viewed!
Thanks Gwen! Love your party each and every week.
YUM!! Looks so good! Thanks for your participation in this campaign. #client
Thanks! My family absolutely loved this dish and has asked for it again this week. I love working with quality products like this tuna.