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
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Recipes You’ll Love
This is my go to recipe for pasta salad. I love pickles more than I should – and I totally made this today before I even saw you posted it! Great minds… Thanks Holly!
We love everything pickles too Stacie! This pasta salad is one of our favs for sure!
Love these, but at times I don’t have time to stop and print or out of Ink !! I have ink now !! Smile !!
Thank you for sending these !
Yay! Glad to hear you enjoy these Ginny!
I made this for the second time today. I used tiny shell pasta which is about the same size as dilatini pasta. I used kosher dills this time. I’m not sure which one I like better. I think the plain dill gave more of a kick and the kosher dill is a more subtle dill with a heavier garlic flavor. I did add fresh chopped garlic to the original batch I made, and used Cajun seasoning instead of cayenne in both batches. This is a great recipe! I made my mother in law’s traditional sweet pickle pasta salad for my hubby and brother in law, which is awesome. But, I made this one for me because I like it better and I love dill pickles! Shhhh!!! They will try it too and am curious to see if they like it. Thank you for the bomb diggity recipe!!!
You are a machine Daneen! Twice in one day! So glad you loved it!! It is a definite hit amongst our family and friends, can’t wait for your hubby and brother in law to try it out!
Today made this Dill Pickle Pasta Salad for the third time. Did not have cheese to go in the salad; but that made no difference it is still a very good pasta salad that my family thoroughly enjoys eating. Thank you, Holly, for sharing the recipe.
I am so glad your family enjoyed the recipe Barbara!
This is ABSOLUTELY THE BEST!!
It works perfectly with both wheat and gluten free ditalini (salad pasta).
A keeper!!!
I am so glad you have enjoyed this pasta salad recipe Dave!
I made this Dill Pickle Pasta Salad for a baby shower today,
and it turned out super yummy!
Tip- When you make it the dressing seems thin and doesn’t seem to absorb. Don’t worry… when it sits overnight it will thicken, absorb, and still coat the pasta nicely. I used a different pasta but it was still great. I think corkscrew/fusilli or cavatappi pasta would be good too. I also added 2 cloves of chopped garlic and I used Cajun seasoning instead of cayenne. I will definitely make it again, and may try it with kosher dills next time.
There were no leftovers because people took a cup to go!
Thanks for an awesome recipe!!
Daneen,
I am so glad this pasta salad was well received by the shower guests! Thank you for stopping back to let us know and share your tips!
I just changed it up some. Used curry powder, dill infused havarti and diced tomatoes. Its every sunday request now.
Those sound like fantastic additions to this pasta salad Robert!
We are a family that loves to eat kosher pickles. My family truly enjoys eating this pickle pasta salad. It goes together easily, and is a big hit with family and friends. Even sent the recipe to my sister in the State of Tennessee and she is going to try it as she loves pickles too!
We love pickles too Barbara! It is always a hit when we share it with family and friends too!!
This is about the fourth time I have made this so it is my go to pasta salad. I do had a bit more cayenne we like spicy.
Great addition Fred! We love this pasta salad! We will have to give it a try extra spicy!
My daughter and I made this a couple of weeks ago and honestly it was all I could do not to eat THE WHOLE BOWL. We are a pickle-loving people and it was beyond amazing. Thank you for this great idea Holly. I have shared it with several people now and I can’t WAIT to make it again. :-)
Totally understand Renee, this salad just soooo yummy! Everyone who is lucky enough to sneak a serving when we do share agrees!
I’ve used dill pickles in potato salad and the juice in dressing for years. I’ve never thought to make a dill pickle pasta salad. This is great for those who like their dill pickles. I did, however, tweak the dressing a bit by adding 2 tsp. sugar and 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar, to suite my own taste. I almost forgot the fresh dill weed, and had tasted the salad before I added it. The dill week makes a big difference. This will be my go to recipe for pasta salad. Great recipe!
I am so glad you liked this pasta salad David! I think the dill adds a lot of yummy flavor to the recipe too!
Awesome pasta salad!! So different and so refreshing. Served with ham and asparagus. Just yummy! Thank you for this recipe.
So glad you loved it Stuart!
Just thru this today for a spur of the moment picnic and it taste amazing!! So eady to prepare in a pinch! The crunch of the pickles & onion together makes the taste buds sing! Highly recommended by the family!!
Yay Tracy!! So glad it was a hit at your picnic (PS A picnic sounds about perfect to me right now, hope you had lots of sunshine)!
Love recipes
Thanks Evelyn!
Looking forward to your recipes!
I have made this twice and both times it was a hit. I recently took it to a party that asked for a dish to share. I had at least five people ask for the recipe. It was a big hit. Be sure to get the cayenne pepper just right, too little makes it dull and too much drowns out the other flavors.
I’m so happy to hear it was such a hit Jay! We definitely love it too!
When are you going to post the serving size for these recipes?????
It says how many servings; but NEVER the size.
Thanks for your suggestion Loretta.
As a side dish, this pasta salad has a ½ cup serving size.
Your Dill Pickle Pasta Salad is now one of my favorite. I love pasta salads. I love dill pickles. I added hard cooked eggs and sliced black olives. Keep them coming.
So glad you loved it Shirley! Those sound like great additions!
My husband loves bread and butter pickles so I used them instead of dill. We both loved it. The pickles were the only thing I substituted.
Yum! Happy to hear you both loved it so much!
Want to add protein to this. Do you think Ham or Chicken? I’m leaning towards ham…
Either would work but I agree, ham would be best. It goes so well with pickles!
Delicious. Didn’t have fresh dill so used dried. When wanted protein to my helping I added tuna but I think ham would be delicious too. A hit with my husband
So glad you loved it Angela!