By: Jill Mills Posted: May 26, 2025

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This 4th of July Pasta Salad is the ultimate festive side dish for your summer cookout! Bursting with flavor, it features colorful pasta fun patriotic twist that’s sure to wow your guests.

Top-down close-up of red, yellow, and blue rotini pasta salad, showing cheese cubes and slices of mini pepperoni nestled among the colorful pasta spirals.

If you want an easy dish for your 4th of July holiday, you have to try this pasta salad. Prep is fast, and it’s perfect to make in advance. It has great savory flavors with the perfect zing from the Italian dressing to tie it all together. The bright red and blue colors make all of the ingredients pop, so it really stands out.

Why You’ll Love This 4th of July Pasta Salad

It’s a budget-friendly recipe. This pasta salad consists of low-cost ingredients, making it perfect to whip up for a crowd. I like to double and sometimes triple the recipe to ensure there’s plenty for everyone to enjoy.
It’s quick to prepare. The prep for this patriotic pasta salad is fairly simple. Once the pasta is cooked, drained, and cooled, the rest of the steps are easy peasy. I love pasta salad because it doesn’t take hours to make, but still tastes delicious.
It’s easy to customize the flavors. One of my favorite things about this recipe is that you can customize it. Get creative with the flavors and ingredients to make it your own! This includes pasta shape, varieties of meat and cheese, and the dressing.

A patriotic pasta salad served in a white bowl, featuring red, yellow, and blue rotini pasta, mini pepperoni slices, and cubes of cheese. The bowl sits on a red polka dot napkin with a festive pom-pom and a white ceramic pitcher holding wooden utensils in the background.

Ingredients Needed

These are all of the ingredients I use to make red, white, and blue pasta salad. The list includes meat, cheese, some veggies, and salad dressing. Scroll to the recipe card below for measurements and more information.

Pasta: I use cellentani or cavatappi pasta for this recipe. You may use rotini or even penne if you prefer. Just cook it according to the package directions and you’re set.
Food coloring: You will need blue and red food coloring. The pasta is divided into thirds, and each will be a different color: red, blue, and “white” or uncolored pasta. Then, the finished pasta salad will have the same colors as the American flag!
Mozzarella: I grab a block of mozzarella cheese and cut it into cubes. It’s cost-effective and easy. If you prefer to use mozzarella balls, that’s fine as well.
Pepperoni: Mini pepperoni are great for convenience as they are already in bite-sized pieces. If you have small pepperoni, you may slice them in half. For sandwich pepperoni, you can cut the slices into quarters.
Onions and peppers: I like to add diced red onion and red bell pepper. They add more color to the pasta salad as well as a crunchy texture to balance the soft ingredients.
Italian dressing: Use an oil-based dressing, not a creamy one, for this recipe. It adds bold flavors that work well with the other ingredients and keeps the colors vibrant.

Flat lay of pasta salad ingredients, including uncooked cavatappi pasta, diced red bell pepper, mini pepperoni slices, chopped red onion, cubed cheese, Italian dressing in a glass measuring cup, and red and blue gel food coloring tubes.

How to Make 4th of July Pasta Salad

These are all the steps needed to prepare and put together this 4th of July pasta salad. I highly recommend measuring and chopping your meat, cheese, and veggies before you start so they are ready to go when you need them.

Cook the pasta. Boil water and cook the cellentani according to the package directions. Drain it and set it aside to cool.
Prepare the bags with food coloring. Grab two gallon Ziploc bags. Add 3 drops of red food coloring and 1 tablespoon of water to one, and 3 drops of blue food coloring and 1 tablespoon of water to the other.
Divide and color it. Divide the pasta into thirds and put one-third into each Ziploc bag. Put the remaining portion aside because it won’t be colored (this is the “white”). Toss the pasta in the colored bags around to coat it evenly, and then set it aside for 5 minutes to soak in.

Plastic zip-top bag filled with cooked pasta and red food coloring, beginning the process of dyeing the pasta for the patriotic theme.

Overhead view of a glass bowl filled with separated ingredients for pasta salad: cooked pasta, cubed cheese, diced red bell pepper, chopped red onion, and mini pepperoni slices.

Combine the remaining ingredients. Add the pepperoni, mozzarella, onion, and bell pepper to a large bowl and stir them all to combine.
Add the dressing. Pour in the Italian dressing and lightly toss it.
Rinse the colored pasta. Grab your colored pasta, rinse it thoroughly, and add it to the salad along with the uncolored portion.
Toss and chill. Ensure it’s all tossed and combined before you cover it with plastic wrap. Stick it in the refrigerator for an hour to chill and then enjoy!

Patriotic pasta salad in a white bowl, filled with red, yellow, and blue rotini, cheese cubes, and pepperoni, set on a red polka dot napkin with a festive pom-pom decoration nearby.

Tips and Variations

Add more veggies. Try more fresh veggies, too! Add halved cherry tomatoes, sliced banana peppers, diced celery, black olives, or whatever you see fit. Any veggies that you enjoy raw would work perfectly.
Switch the meat and cheese. Try this recipe using different meats and cheeses! Diced ham or salami would be delicious in this pasta salad. Use cubes of sharp white cheddar or mild provolone, too. Get creative and make it your own!
Chill it overnight. I like to leave it in the refrigerator for at least an hour to give the ingredients time to soak up the dressing. Try making it the night before to give it more time to chill. It enhances the flavors and makes it taste even better.
Shortcut. You can buy premade red, white and blue colored pasta at World Market and skip the coloring process.

Proper Storage

This 4th of July pasta salad will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. It’s a cold salad, so you don’t have to worry about reheating it.

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