Cheese boards and charcuterie boards have dominated Instagram feeds and spawned new businesses, all dedicated to the ease and beauty of the board. There’s something about that mix of flavors — the cheese, the meat, the briny olives, the spreads, and the bread. It’s practically universally enjoyed, which is why they are so popular.
This current recipe stems from thinking about a charcuterie board and reimagining it as a pasta dish. It’s wildly delicious and filling.
This charcuterie pasta dish is a sure-fire hit for many occasions:
- Make it on a Sunday, and you’ll have lunches for a week.
- Make it for a casual dinner party, and you can make it ahead of time and serve it with a Caesar salad.
- Make it for a fall picnic.
- Make it for tailgating season.
- Make it to bring to a friend who needs some meals that will last a few days in the refrigerator.
- Make it as a pasta side to go with sandwiches.
The three basic steps to making charcuterie board pasta:
How to make this charcuterie pasta dish work for a variety of food preferences:
One idea is to make the base pesto pasta and have all the other fixings in separate bowls, arranged in true charcuterie board fashion. That way, your guests can customize their dish to their liking, and you don’t have to worry that Joey doesn’t like olives or that Sue is a vegetarian!
Here is the full recipe for charcuterie pasta. Enjoy!
Charcuterie Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 16 oz dried rotini pasta Private Selection Brand at Kroger
- 1 cup pesto of choice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 cup shaved Parmesan cheese Private Selection Brand at Kroger
- 10.6 oz Castelvetrano pitted olives, drained, cut into halves Private Selection Brand at Kroger offers a 10.6 oz jar, which is perfect.
- 2 tbs liquid from the jar of Castelvetrano olives
- 1/4 cup pistachio nuts, roasted and salted flavor, crushed
- 1 tbs crushed red pepper
- 3 oz prosciutto, salami or your favorite charcuterie board meat (you can also use a combination) I know this does not sound like a lot of meat. I find it to be plenty for this recipe!
- 6 oz cherry size mozzarella balls from Belgioioso, drained and cut into quarters This is 18 balls.
- 20 grape tomatoes, cut into halves
- 1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives, drained and cut into halves Private Selection Brand at Kroger
- 1 cup jarred artichoke hearts, drained and cut into small pieces
- 1/3 cup red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to the directions.
- Rinse pasta and set aside.
- Take one cup pesto and mix with 1/4 cup olive oil to thin it. If your pesto is extra thick, you may need to add more olive oil. Thinning it out makes it easier to mix with the pasta.
- Mix thinned-out pesto with pasta.
- Add Castelvetrano olives (drained and sliced in half), olive liquid, crushed red pepper, crushed pistachios, and 1/2 cup of the shaved Parmesan cheese.
- (Stopping here makes a really good dish as well!)
- Next, add all the rest of the ingredients except for fresh basil and mix.
- Add the remaining Parmesan cheese and 1/2 the fresh basil and mix.
- Top with the remaining fresh basil and some finishing salt.
- *Note: Taste before the final step to see if any salt or black pepper is needed.
Nutrition
Added note: I used to make fresh pesto all the time for a restaurant I owned in my 20s. Everyone LOVED this pesto, and it’s super simple as it’s made with walnuts, baby spinach, and basil. Because spinach is so much cheaper than basil, it’s far easier to make a huge batch. And, I like this flavor better! If you’d like to try it, here is a link to my Spinach Walnut Pesto.
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