The rest involves chopping lots of fresh, cool veggies and tossing the pasta with the dressing. The only heat in this recipe comes when you boil the pasta.

No oven required!: As I'm typing this, we are at peak summer temperatures, and an oven-free recipe sounds about perfect.

In addition to crunchy veggies, we have creamy mozzarella, peppery salami, tangy pecorino, salty green olives and aromatic herbs tossed in a zesty red wine vinaigrette. Buy, hey.it is an Italian salad, and most of my Italian friends are colorful and far from boring, so it's right on brand.

Flavor overload: There is a lot going on in this salad from both a color and flavor perspective.

Why you (and everybody else) will love this recipe

So here we are! Read on to learn why this easy, bright, and flavor-packed pasta salad has become a new household favorite. As a non-Italian, the intimidation factor was sky high, but I left with an empty bowl, loads of compliments and more than one request for the recipe. So what makes my Italian Bow Tie Pasta Salad so special? Well, for starters, I brought it to a potluck hosted by a bunch of Italian chefs.

There are more than a few Italian pasta salads out there in the Google-verse.

Pot luck bowtie pasta salad recipes