Dill Pickle Pasta Salad is literally my favorite pasta salad ever! In this creamy pasta salad recipe, dill pickles play a starring role and add tons of flavor and crunch! This recipe is even better when it’s made ahead of time making it the perfect potluck dish!
I have a thing for dill pickles. I always have. My sister and I have exchanged pickle themed gifts for about 20 years now… I’ve received everything from pickle erasers and a case of pickle pops (like freezies.. but pickle juice) and given her everything from a yodeling pickle to pickle soap and jewellery. One thing we haven’t exchanged yet is a dill pickle recipe, so of course I have to dedicate this delicious pasta salad recipe to my sister Candace.
I like pasta salads, I make a ton of them. They’re easy to make and usually better if made ahead of time. They’re the hit of every potluck meal and perfect to pack the next day for lunch. As much as I like pasta salads, this Dill Pickle Pasta salad is honestly one of the best pasta salads I’ve ever had! Pickles (or even dill pickle relish) usually play a supporting role in recipes, especially pasta salad recipes and potato salads.
But not this time… nope, this time the prized dill pickle plays the starring role, front and center.
* cheer * yay * cheer *
There is pickle flavor infused throughout this recipe (in 3 different places) yet it’s just the right amount of pickley (if pickley is even a word!?). Yup, time to get pickled people (in the dill pickle sense of course).
When buying pickles for this recipe, I love baby dills if you can find them because I love the crunch they give and I love how they look in little rounds. I’m a bit freakish about my pickles so I actually pick up all of the pickle jars at the store and try to choose jar with the the smallest pickles. I look like a person trying to choose the perfect produce, only in the pickle aisle. If you only have bigger dill pickles (or homemade pickles), they’ll still be great in this recipe too, just chop them but not too small, you want them to keep that crunch.
If you have (or love) sweet pickles you can also throw a handful of those in here too. I mean, sweet and salty, crunch creamy… perfection right?!
Oh, and when you’re scooping out your pickle juice to add to the dressing in this recipe, try to grab all of those yummy little garlicky bits floating around and put them in the dressing too, they add extra flavor. And one last tip about the white onion… be sure to grab the onions with the white papery skin, the ones with the yellow skin are much stronger and will be a little bit overpowering in this dish.
This dill pickle pasta salad is pretty much guaranteed to be the hit of your next potluck and the best part is that it is awesome made the day before! If you’re lucky enough to have leftovers (which I doubt would happen) they’ll keep several days in the fridge and make the perfect lunch!
Items You’ll Need For This Recipe
* Dill Pickles * Shell Pasta * Cayenne Pepper *
Dill Pickle Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- ½ pound medium shells about 3 cups
- ¾ cup sliced pickles
- ⅔ cup diced cheddar cheese
- 3 tablespoons minced white onion
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
- ½ cup dill pickle juice
Dressing
- ⅔ cup mayonnaise
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 4 tablespoons dill pickle juice
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Boil pasta al dente according to package directions. Run under cold water to stop cooking.
- Toss cold pasta with about ½ cup of pickle juice and set aside for about 5 minutes. Drain & discard pickle juice.
- Combine all dressing ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.
- Toss all ingredients in a large bowl. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.
Video
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Recipes You’ll Love
Yummy! I used ranch dressing instead of mayo and turned out well
Great idea, thanks for sharing!
Made the Dill Pickle salad with Bread and Butter pickles, my husbands favorite, and it was wonderful. Added a cup of chopped celery for a but more crunch. We love pasta salad and this is now in first place.
Interesting twist Pat! Thank you for sharing :)
I just wanted to report the funny results I got with this recipe. I made it thinking it might be the perfect cold side for sandwiches at our beach house.Wow, what a good choice! My brothers and their wives (none of whom like pickles much) were raving about the salad. My father, a southerner, loved it and said it tasted like something his Mom would make. The highest compliment, in my book! My mother, a northerner who hates anything labeled “salad” that has ingredients like mayonnaise or sour cream, surreptitiously went for seconds :) I can’t wait to make it again!!
Ahh that’s so great Dani, so glad your family loved this as much as mine does! ❤️
Always a hit in our house! Always served with some kind of BBQ’d meat.
Just an FYI to save you time when you make this, 4 Tbsp = 1/4 cup. :)
Enjoy!
Yum! So glad you loved it Nick!
I’m going to make this for Boxing Day brunch. I think I’ll add some bacon…
Sounds delicious! Enjoy it Rhonda!
Love it!!! Will definitely make again and again. I used colby-jack instead of cheddar and let it chill overnight.
Love colby-jack too.Sounds great Cindi!
I absolutely love this pasta, and so does everybody I’ve fed it to. My only gripe: In a world where I could have my own prep cook, this would take 5 minutes to cut up the pickles, the cheese, the onion, the dill; then make a batch of dressing; then put everything together. That’s just crazy. Not possible. I would say about 20 minutes for prep — there are dishes to be gathered, even if you have all your ingredients nicely laid out. Still, I love the pasta. And it was worth the time.
I use this chopper here, makes the chopping a total breeze and saves tons of time! :)
This is soooooooooooooooooooo good! This is a 5-star+++ recipe!!!
We’ve been enjoying this all summer. I prefer ditalini (salad) pasta because shells tend to nest and under cook.
BTW, it’s also great with gluten free pastas. Only caveat is make small batches because GF pastas stale quickly-develop a grainy texture (chew). I’ve discovered that cooking them to done plus a minute (vice al dente) increases the texture-life of the pasta. I’ve found only one source for GF Italian ditalini pasta.
Thank you Dave! And thanks for the tip too :)
I made a double batch of this for a work potluck today.
It was a big hit and was all gone at the end of the day.
The only changes I made were using dried dill weed instead of fresh, and I also forgot to drain the pickle juice off of the pasta after soaking it. Guess what? It was still great. I won’t drain the juice next time I make this, and I will be making it again. Yummy!
Glad it was such a big hit Tim!!
We love the recipe but wanted it a bit sweeter, so I use half sweet midgie pickles and half sweet pickle juice instead of all dill pickles and juice. Really good!! Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Sounds great Maddie!
SUCH YUMMINESS!!! THIS is to-die-for and even making a double batch yielded NO leftovers. I accidentally used way more white onion than suggested (like, 5 times as much) and substituted Old Bay for cayenne with marvelous results. I don’t think there is any way to mess this up. ;-) Thank you for the tip about adding the garlic bits from the pickle juice, I think that really bumped up the flavour (I added ALL of them from two jars of Bicks Ultimate Garlic Pickles). If I didn’t have those pickled garlic bits, I would’ve minced some fresh garlic into the dressing anyway. My hubby, who detests pasta salad, had three helpings!!
I’m so happy to hear your hubby, and everyone else, loved this salad so much!!
THE best!! This was the only recipe from a huge backyard BBQ that was requested afterwards so that says lots. I doubled the recipe, made it the night before, and it was just perfect. I totally forgot fresh dill at the store so used the “1/3” rule for dried, and didn’t notice to drain the pickle juice from the pasta so it ended up in the mix along with everything else. It was so good; I’m not going to drain the pickle juice ever!!
So happy to hear it was such a hit for you Roxanne!!
Can this recipe be doubled (or tripled or more) or do any of the ingredient amounts need to be altered if the batch size increases? I LOVE this salad and I get asked to bring it to functions. I need to bring a huge batch to this weekend’s festivities.
Absolutely! I double it almost every time I make it!
Added some of those tiny cooked salad shrimp to this wonderful salad, so very yummy! A new favorite!
Great idea Catherine!
How many does this recipe serve? I’m making it for a large crowd and need to know whether to double or triple it.
This recipe serves 8.
I just made this for supper tonight and it was awesome!!! I just added a little bit more cheese and dill pickles cause I love them.
So glad you enjoyed it Mary Anne!
I do not have any fresh dill. How much would you substitute for dried dill?
You would need to cut the dill to ⅓ of the original amount, in this case, you’d want about 2 teaspoons.
Going to make this for a party tomorrow and I’m wondering if it’s ok to make the day before? Will it still be good and not get soggy?
It should be just fine the next day. If you’d like you can prepare the ingredients and combine them the day of your event.
I just made this salad for the first time today. I love it!!! I added broccoli for the crunchiness and color. SO good!!! My new favorite pasta salad! Thank you for sharing!
I am so glad you loved it Chio, broccoli sounds like a great addition!
I don’t eat pasta so made this recipe using cauliflower and replaced the sour cream with ff Greek yogurt. it was absolutely amazing. We absolutely love pickles so this was a real winner. Everyone at the potluck complimented it!
What a great idea Jodi! So glad to hear it turned out so well!