Give Store-Bought Pasta Salad A Bright Boost With A Dollop Of Pesto

Store-bought pasta salad can rarely hold a candle to homemade, but sometimes it's a necessary purchase. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to upgrade your pasta salad — even store-bought — and there's one easy mix-in that can make a huge difference in the flavor: pesto. A bright and fresh homemade pesto comes together in just five minutes, but pre-made pesto also works. Adding a dollop of the herby, cheesy sauce works to improve flavor and impart moisture if the pasta salad is dry. You can even thin out the pesto with olive oil for additional moisture without sacrificing flavor. 

If your store-bought pasta salad is especially bland, or if you want to add even more to it, there are other ingredients you can add that will play well with the pesto. Adding extra of what's already in pesto, like fresh basil and parmesan, is an easy way to enhance an herbaceous or salty flavor. Cheeses, like mozzarella, feta, provolone, gouda, and even ricotta, can help the pasta go further and taste great with the pesto. If stretching your store-bought pasta is the goal, veggies you can incorporate include peas, tomatoes, arugula, and artichoke hearts. An herbed breadcrumb or pine nut topping could be a fun and tasty way to bring in a bit more texture, too. 

Though not all store-bought pasta salads would be a good match for a dollop of pesto, many popular styles would be. Of course, anything that already has a pesto dressing or pesto ingredients — like basil and parmesan — are no-brainers for adding in some more pesto. Most Mediterranean-style pasta salads would welcome a bit of it, too. Greek pasta salad, especially, tends to have a dressing with ingredients that work well with a pesto twist. Caprese and antipasto pasta salads are well suited for the added layer of flavor pesto can bring, highlighting fresh as well as pickled ingredients. 

A few that probably wouldn't benefit from some pesto are most mayo-based salads since those often have strong flavors from things like ranch or other zesty seasoning blends. Similarly, most macaroni salad is typically too tangy to mesh well with the herbaceous notes of pesto. Southwestern or Asian-style pasta salads should probably stay pesto-free as well as these have distinct flavors that would overpower or be diminished by the addition of pesto. 

Whichever base you're using, start with a small amount of pesto first, so you can get a sense of how strong you want the addition to be. Mix it in, then add more sparingly until you find the right balance. Include additional mix-ins or toppings, or just dive right in.