Caprese Caesar Pasta Salad. A combination of our yummiest, well-dressed Caesar salad mixed together with our favorite fresh Caprese salad, along with plenty of sweet cherry tomatoes, basil, and fresh mozzarella. Add your favorite pasta and this will surely become a staple in your kitchen this spring and summer! It’s almost completely no-cook and comes together quickly and with very little effort. Enjoy this caesar pasta salad recipe for dinner and save the leftovers in an airtight container for lunch. Or serve it up at your next spring/summer party, it’s always delicious.

It’s probably pretty obvious, with my sweet berry recipes and vibrant light dinners, but I am so excited for summer! With May well underway, we only have a few short weeks until it’s officially summer.

Mother’s Day is this weekend, then Memorial Day, Father’s Day, and before you know it, the 4th of July will be here! It’s officially time to start planning our summer menus and I’m kicking things off with this salad. I love it so much.

It’s basic, but elevated with that creamy Caesar dressing!!

When my dad would cook dinner for the family growing up, a pasta salad was always on rotation throughout spring and summer. I still have yet to share my dad’s pasta salad recipe, maybe later this summer I finally will!

He’d do it up so simply with broccoli, bell peppers, so much fresh basil, and big chunks of cheddar cheese. He’d then toss in the hot pasta and dress it with lots of olive oil.

My dad’s secret was tossing everything together while the pasta was HOT.  The cheese would melt over the pasta. It was so good. I still, to this day use his trick of tossing hot pasta with cubes of cheddar. It’s a simple trick, but so delicious.

Like most delicious salads, this recipe starts with the dressing. Typically when you have any kind of Caprese salad, it’s dressed with oil and vinegar, most often a balsamic vinaigrette.

It’s always good, but for this pasta salad, I wanted something creamier. I thought about all my favorite salad dressings and kept coming back to the idea of a Caprese Caesar. It sounded so wonderful in my head, so that’s what I did.

The Caesar dressing is easy, just mix mayo with olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, parmesan, salt, and pepper. I added in a few chili flakes too. Can’t leave those out!!

Now for the salad. You’ll need pasta, fresh mozzarella, sweet cherry tomatoes, crisp romaine lettuce, and then an avocado too.

Mix the pasta with the salad ingredients, then pour over the creamy Caesar dressing, and toss it all up! It’s a simple 1, 2-step salad!

Don’t let the simplicity fool you. This hits all the flavors and it’s the first dish to disappear on any dinner table! It’s great as a main dish or side dish.