Italy’s most famous food may be pizza, but these iconic Italian (and Italian-American!) salads prove that even simple vegetable dishes can upstage the rest. Scroll on to find your new favorite Italian salad!
Italians Don’t Do Sad Salads, and Neither Should You
Pizza, pasta, and antipasto are all spectacular, but don’t overlook the Italian salad! The salad course in Italy shows the culture’s vibrant approach to vegetables in general and salad, specifically. Honestly, I think the only reason we don’t celebrate Italian salads more is that there are so many other delicious Italian dishes!
The rules for Italian salad are simple:
- Showcase a handful of flavors, not dozens. Part of what lets each flavor sing is the limited number on the plate.
- Prioritize seasonal ingredients, with big flavor from pantry staples like olives, giardiniera, pickled or marinated peppers, and cheese.
- Dress them simply. Typically, Italians dress salad with individual components, rather than a pre-mixed dressing. It’s usually extra virgin olive oil, salt, and balsamic vinegar, wine vinegar, or fresh lemon juice. I still like to mix up a dressing, but it’s not a requirement for several of these salads!
Italians have been eating some of the following salads for centuries, and pasta salads (everyone’s favorite summer side dish) are Italian-American classics that have earned their place due to countless containers served at deli counters over decades. I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite. Try them all!
My Tips for Better Italian Salads
- Use the best olive oil you have. Because Italian salads are dressed simply, the quality of the olive oil is front and center in the salad’s flavor. This is not the place for a neutral oil. Our Italian extra-virgin olive oil made from Sicilian Nocellara olives works beautifully in every recipe on this list.
- Don’t rush. Many of these salads—the pasta salad, the rice salad, the antipasto—improve enormously with time. Build that resting period into your plan whenever you can.
- Serve at room temperature. Cold flattens flavor. Assemble your salad or take marinated salads from the fridge 15 to 20 minutes before serving to let the flavors wake up a bit.
Classic Salads from Italy
Italian Seafood Salad (Insalata di Mare)
Among the great dishes of the Italian coastal kitchen, this combination of tender clams, mussels, shrimp, and squid marinated in a bright, zesty lemon dressing is so elegant. This recipe includes crunchy, lightly pickled vegetables, before combining them with the seafood, so everything winds up beautifully infused with flavor. Serve with crusty bread or slices of garlic bread to soak up the dressing.
Caprese Salad
There is no more iconic Italian salad than Caprese, and no recipe that makes a stronger case for the power of a few perfect ingredients. It originated on the island of Capri and has been beloved around the world ever since. It’s a constant inspiration for us, too. Try our chicken caprese, chicken caprese salad, and caprese pasta salad, too!
Panzanella
Bread is a staple in Tuscany, so Tuscan people have long found ways to reinvent stale bread into something new. Ribollita, pappa al pomodoro, and, come summer, this exceptionally good tomato salad. Chunks of crusty bread soak up a garlicky olive oil dressing and the juices from sweet tomatoes until they’re tender and chewy, saturated with flavor. Chef’s Tip: This salad is only as good as the tomatoes!
Italian Potato Salad
This is the potato salad for people who think they don’t like potato salad. There’s no mayonnaise, and the volume of potato is balanced with juicy cherry tomatoes, green olives, and green beans, which prevents it from feeling heavy. This salad is one of my favorite things to serve with Tagliata Di Manzo (Italian Steak With Arugula And Parmesan).
Italian-Style Rice Salad (Insalata di Riso)
Chilled pasta salads are an Italian-American invention, but if they have an Italian ancestor, it’s this rice salad. Typically, Insalata de Riso is made with long-grain white rice, but I like to use brown rice to add some more fiber. I load it up with tuna, marinated artichoke hearts, crunchy vegetables, fresh parsley, and a bright citrus dressing. It’s a great gluten-free alternative to pasta salad!
Fennel Salad with Parmesan
For a vegetable, shaved raw fennel is unusually sweet. Pair it with salty, nutty Parmesan cheese, toasted walnuts, and just a little lemon and olive oil, and you’ve got an exceptionally delicious yet simple salad. Chef’s Tip: A mandoline makes quick work of slicing firm fennel bulbs into paper-thin ribbons, which is key to the texture of this salad. Do be careful; a cut-resistant glove is also a good investment!
Tuna White Bean Salad (Insalata di Tonno e Fagioli)
Thanks to canned tuna and beans this protein-packed salad requires no cooking and hardly any prep, so it takes only minutes to assemble. The Italian original is just beans, tuna, and a little onion, but I like to add some greens and veggies to make it more of a meal. Chef’s Tip: Choose a good-quality tuna packed in olive oil. The texture is meatier, and the flavor is noticeably richer and more complex.
Beloved Italian-American Salads
Italian Pasta Salad
The base is rotini pasta tossed in a zesty Italian dressing with all of your favorite flavors from a spread of antipasti: salami, marinated artichokes, cherry tomatoes, olives, pepperoncini, and fresh mozzarella pearls.
Antipasto Salad
A cousin of our Italian Pasta Salad, minus the pasta! Think of this as an Italian deli counter or your favorite panini reimagined as a salad. It’s loaded with salami, pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, provolone, marinated artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives, and spicy pepperoncini. It’s a briny tumble of flavor that works as a starter, a side, or—with some good bread alongside—a complete meal.
Big Easy Italian Salad
This is the Italian salad you’ll find at loads of red sauce Italian-American restaurants. The base is a crunchy combination of chopped romaine and pleasantly bitter radicchio. Buttery olives and tangy pepperoncini, sweet cherry tomatoes, a few slivers of red onion, and a garlicky homemade Italian dressing make this a great addition to a pizza dinner or to keep a chicken cutlet company.
Italian Chopped Salad
The flavor combination of this chopped salad is similar to the Big Easy Italian Salad, but chopping the ingredients into satisfying, bite-sized pieces makes a big textural difference. Fennel and bell peppers add even more sweetness, color, and crunch. It’s an excellent side for classic Chicken Parmesan or the lighter flavors of Salmon Piccata.
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