Forget Italian — There's A Better Pasta Salad Dressing That Adds 10x The Tang

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One of the most common items you'll see on the menu at a cookout or family gathering is a cool, flavorful pasta salad. Typically, a pasta salad includes fusilli or rotini pasta, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, red peppers, red onion, and many other toppings. But the key to a good pasta salad is the dressing.

Many recipes feature Italian dressing as the star of the show, but there is an alternative option — Catalina dressing. This dressing is one of the classic old-school options you don't always see as much anymore — similar to poppy seed or Roquefort. But you can still find it in stores like Kroger and Walmart, which sell Kraft's Catalina dressing. This dressing is similar in taste and appearance to a classic French dressing, but it's thinner, sweeter, and more tomato-forward, making Catalina more tangy and zesty than the French or Italian options. It will give your pasta salad a sweet-tart brightness while also adding a vibrant red hue.

Catalina dressing was actually created by Kraft and then trademarked in 1962, so don't mistake it for an authentically French-style dressing. A standard recipe for a homemade Catalina dressing might include red wine vinegar, ketchup, honey or sugar, the beloved Worcestershire sauce, spices (paprika, onion powder, garlic powder) and salt. These ingredients are blended and the olive oil is slowly added until the dressing has the right consistency. 

The tanginess of a Catalina dressing really works well with all the elements of a pasta salad, like tomatoes, peppers, and onions. The curly fusilli and rotini pasta are also the perfect vehicles, as that dressing will coat all the crevices and cracks in these shapes. You could also use other similar pastas like penne, bowtie, or even tortellini for a flavor-packed bite to complement the sauciness of the Catalina dressing.

If you're leaning toward using the store-bought version created by Kraft instead of making the dressing from scratch, know that customers tend to love it. The classic Catalina Kraft dressing has 4.8 out of 5 stars on Amazon, and a 4.7-star rating on Kroger. If you're looking for slightly different variations of the dressing for your pasta salad, Kraft also offers sweet honey, fat free, and lite versions. There's even a tangy bacon option with bacon bits that can give your salad a salty, savory bite. 

Sure, there's nothing wrong with the more standard pasta salad that's covered in delicious Italian dressing. But Catalina dressing really adds much more flavor with its tanginess and richer tomato base. Give it a try the next time you're making a pasta salad for friends or family at a cookout or dinner party. And once you develop a taste for it, you can use it beyond pasta salad; this dressing also works on other salads, tacos, and as a sandwich and wrap spread or a meatball glaze.