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This Ham Pasta Salad is loaded with pineapple and veggies. It is a refreshing play on my favorite Hawaiian Pizza flavors (which is not actually Hawaiian at all)!
A quick and easy homemade pineapple dressing is tossed with pasta, ham, and bell peppers for a uniquely delicious side dish!
It’s potluck perfect and makes a great side dish or light meal.
A Fresh and Flavorful Pasta Salad
If you are looking for a pasta salad that’s a little bit different, this ham pasta salad is it!
- Pasta – Use any medium shaped pasta, farfalle, shells, and rotini are favorites.
- Add Ins: In this easy recipe, ham and pineapple are the stars, inspired by flavors on a Hawaiian pizza. Red peppers add crunch and color while green onions add flavor.
- The dressing is a quick creamy pineapple dressing and it’s so good that I always double it for salads (it’s excellent over strawberry spinach salad too).
This recipe is not a Hawaiian dish, and it is not Hawaiian pasta salad like a Macaroni Salad found on a typical Hawaiian Plate Lunch. In a Hawaiian plate lunch, generally, macaroni salad is a tangy combination of mayo & macaroni, sometimes with a few other ingredients. You can find a great Hawaiian macaroni salad here.
The Pineapple Dressing
You can use almost any dressing on pasta salad. This recipe includes a fresh and zesty pineapple dressing. Making homemade dressing is very quick and easy, and the flavor is much better than store-bought dressing.
- Mayonnaise and sour cream are the creamy base
- Pineapple (and a bit of cider vinegar) add tang and freshness
- Dijon and garlic powder add flavor while honey balances out the dressing.
Tips for Pasta Salads
- Don’t overcook the pasta, it will soften as it soaks up the dressing.
- Add extra dressing, as some will be absorbed by the pasta.
- Pasta salad is best made at least a couple of hours ahead of time so the flavors have a chance to blend.
- Season the salad generously.
Perfect Pasta Salads
Did your family love this Ham & Pineapple Pasta Salad? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Ham & Pineapple Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 8 ounces rotini or bow tie pasta
- 1 can pineapple tidbits (14 ounces) with juice reserved for dressing
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 2 cups diced ham
- 1 green onion thinly sliced
Dressing
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ⅓ cup pineapple juice
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon honey
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- In a large pot, cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain the pasta and run it under cold water to cool.
- In a bowl, whisk together all dressing ingredients until smooth.
- In a large bowl, combine the cooled pasta, ham, pineapple, bell pepper, green onion, and dressing. Gently toss to combine.
- Refrigerate the pasta salad for at least 2 hours before serving.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Pasta, Salad, Side Dish
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The pasta salad with pineapple dressing I can hardly wait to make it. It sounds delicious.
I have a vegetarian in the family. Would leaving out the ham completely ruin this dish? Any substitution ideas? Thanx
I don’t think it would ruin this dish at all. It will change the flavor, but a pineapple pasta sounds delicious to me! Another reader made a vegetarian version of this pasta salad and their only recommendation was to add some salt to make up for the lack of ham. I would love to hear how it turns out for you, Cheryl!
Not a big fan of this dish. The flavor was lacking and the dressing was way too soupy for my preference.
I am sorry to hear that, Cindy. Thanks for trying our recipe, if you do try it again I would love to hear how you “spice” it up!
I dont have a scale, could you please convert the 8 oz of bow tie pasta to cups? thank you
Hi Cindy, it’s about 2 ½ cups of pasta.
Yum. Super easy
I’m confused. I made this today, and I have barely 2 hours for it to chill before supper time. (I meant to make it earlier in the day, but lost track of time, and I suspect it will taste better tomorrow for our leftovers.)
My confusion is that I just read the NOTES, and the last note says, “Add extra dressing, as some will be absorbed by the pasta.” So … are you saying that for 8 oz pasta I should have made more dressing than this recipe calls for? If so, why didn’t you just up the ingredients in the dressing recipe above to make the perfect amount??
Hi Lola, this recipe does make the perfect amount of dressing for the pasta salad. However, the longer it sits in the fridge the more the pasta will soak up the dressing. You can store this pasta in the fridge for up to 5 days, so if you store it for the full 5 days you may need to refresh it with some additional dressing. I hope that clears that up!
sooo good
I made this for a Hawaiian themed party 8 years ago in 2015. I, and everyone at the party, absolutely loved it. I saved it to Pinterest and I’ve told everybody about it over the years and passed on the recipe, but I hadn’t made it again until today. Let me tell you, it’s just as good as I remember. This is such a delicious recipe and a refreshing summer pasta salad. Thanks so much, I’ll be keeping it in my rotation from now on.
I made this on 11 Jun 2023, exactly as written, family agrees, absolutely delicious salad! The dressing is perfect for this. Thank you, Holly, for another great recipe.
I am so happy to hear this recipe was a hit Lee!
Since this is summer – why not use fresh pineapple ?
Fresh pineapple would be delicious Phyllis!
cool and refreshing.
i made it using a bag of cheese tortellini instead of plain pasta, so I could serve it as a light, easy meal. I added a bit of ground ginger and some red pepper flakes, only because the dressing was lacking a bit of flavor to me. (JMHO) It was AWESOME!!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!!!
I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe Cathy, your version sounds delicious!
I’m an activity director at a senior Retirement living community. We put on a fun cooking show once a month. The seniors loved this. Everyone wanted the recipe.
Love it. Had the pasta part down already. But didn’t have what dressing to use. Truly delious.
My family LOVES this recipe!! We had a Hawaiian themed party and everyone just loved it! Thank you so much for a great recipe
This is one of my all-time favorite salads, and I dropped by just to say “thanks” for sharing it with us.
You’re welcome, Sally! We are glad you are enjoying it as much as we are.
I love this recipe! I’ve used it countless times, and what I love is how versatile it is – you can add more or less of things, bring in different flavours like bacon rather than ham, use different vinegars or mayos for different tastes – it’s just amazing.
It’s our summer staple, and a BBQ favourite. Thank you so much for sharing this, it’s been a game changer!!!
So happy you love this recipe as much as we do, Stacey!
I love this salad. I’ve made it several times. The dressing has a different taste that is delicious and addicting to say the least. I always double the dressing and usually make it the night before and let it sit in the refrigerator. I would highly recommend this recipe. It’s really a refreshing pasta salad.
I made this recipe exactly per instructions without any changes. When I first tasted it immediately after I made it, I found it to be quite bland. I refrigerated it overnight thinking that perhaps the flavors would improve. Sadly, it did not. To doctor it up I added about a half cup more pineapple, some ground ginger (about a tablespoon), some onion powder, and some pink Himalayan salt to taste. This made it much better. I still think it needs something more, so I am going to fry up some bacon. We shall see. Still a good basic recipe.
Miss K, after reading your review, makes me wonder if substituting
Miracle Whip would “jazz ” it up a bit?
I’ve made this Hawaiian pasta salad quite a bit it’s one of my family’s favorites <3 Thank you for sharing such great recipes
You’re very welcome Cheryl!