Southwestern Pasta Salad Recipe

Pasta salad, believe it or not, has been around for over 100 years, ever since early 20th-century cooks adapted potato salad recipes for use with macaroni. Developer Julianne De Witt's salad, however, is a fresh and contemporary take on the dish, flavoring fusilli with warm Southwestern spices, lime juice, and cilantro. This hearty salad also includes both corn and black beans, so it could make for a meal on its own as well as serving as a side for a simple meal of grilled steak or chicken. (If you'll be firing up the grill, we suggest cooking a few ears of corn over the coals and using them in the salad in place of the frozen kind.) 

The salad provides a perfect balance of flavors and textures, with comforting pasta, earthy beans, bright sweet corn, and tangy, salty, crumbly cotija cheese. A simple but flavorful dressing with a smoky heat from the addition of chipotle powder brings all the elements together. 

Many pasta salads are served cold, and this one, too, can be eaten straight out of the fridge. De Witt, however, tells us, "I prefer to serve this salad at room temperature because it really brings out the flavors." There's no need to finish it up in one sitting, either, since it can last for up to 6 days in the refrigerator, making it perfect for meal prep. In fact, this salad should taste even better the next day since the flavors will have had longer to develop.

The base of the salad is fusilli, while it also includes cherry tomatoes, scallions, cilantro, frozen corn, canned black beans, cotija cheese, and pumpkin seeds. To make the dressing, you'll need olive oil, lime juice, garlic, dijon mustard, chipotle powder, garlic powder, cumin, ground coriander, Mexican oregano, and black pepper.

De Witt does say, though, "This recipe is easily customizable to suit different tastes." If you like a spicier salad, stir some cayenne or hot sauce into the dressing or add some chopped chiles to the mix. Bell peppers or avocado can also be added, or toss in some diced cooked chicken or shrimp to turn it into a hearty entree.

Bring a large pot of water with 2 teaspoons of salt added to a boil.

Add the fusilli and cook until al dente, approximately 6 to 8 minutes.

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the vinaigrette by adding ¼ cup of olive oil, lime juice, garlic, Dijon, chipotle powder, garlic powder, cumin, coriander, oregano, black pepper, and the remaining teaspoon of salt, to a small bowl.

Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together and set aside.

Strain the pasta and add it to a large bowl.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pasta and stir. This will ensure that pasta doesn't stick together. Set the pasta aside to cool.

Cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters.

Finely dice the scallions.

Roughly chop the cilantro leaves, discarding the stems.

Add the corn, black beans, tomatoes, scallions, cotija, cilantro, and pumpkin seeds to the pasta.

Add the vinaigrette to the pasta.

Toss to combine the ingredients.

Serve the salad at room temperature or chill for a few hours in the refrigerator.

Cotija is a cow's milk cheese from Mexico that is soft, mild, and somewhat salty when fresh. As it ages, though, its flavor becomes sharper and the texture drier and more crumbly. It's not one of your melty cheeses, so not the kind of thing you'd use for a grilled cheese sandwich, but it makes a great topper for street corn, chili fresco, and tacos filled with smoked pork belly carnitas or made with beer-battered shrimp.

If you can't get hold of any cotija, queso fresco makes a great substitute, as does feta. Both have a similar flavor and texture to the cheese in its fresh form, which is what is used in this salad, but aged cotija is closer to parmesan or romano. You could try either of these cheeses, too, while another option is using plant-based feta-style crumbles since this substitution would make the salad vegan. Of course, if you can't do dairy, you could also simply leave the cheese out, since there are plenty of other flavors at work in this dish.

Mexican oregano is not actually oregano, or at least it is no relation to the Mediterranean variety. It's a type of verbena, while the kind we're probably more familiar with is a type of mint. While the two herbs don't vary as widely in flavor as, say, dill and cilantro, they do have a few notable differences. Mediterranean oregano is sweeter, with undertones of pepper and perhaps a little bitterness, but Mexican oregano is more floral with a slightly citrusy tang and a hint of licorice.

If you have no Mexican oregano on hand, you can swap it out for the Mediterranean kind in a pinch, but marjoram makes an even better substitute. So similar are the flavors, in fact, that Mexican oregano is sometimes known as Mexican marjoram. While marjoram won't have the same citrusy notes, if the recipe calls for ingredients such as lime, coriander, or cilantro (this salad uses all three), add a little more of each and their flavors can compensate for that lack.