I tried making Ina Garten’s easy pasta salad. It’s so good that I’ll be bringing it to every cookout this summer.

As a chef, I’ve always loved Ina Garten’s classic, riffable recipes — they’re easy to recreate at home, and they’re usually a hit with guests.

I’ve also been looking for a simple side dish to bring to summer cookouts and picnics, so when I found Garten’s tomato feta pasta salad, I had to give it a try.

Here’s what happened when I tested the dish out for myself. Spoiler alert: I’ll be adding it to my recipe rotation.

The ingredients amp up umami more than other pasta salads I’ve tried.

The recipe calls for short-cut pasta, black olives, feta cheese, and two kinds of tomatoes: fresh and sun-dried. It’s key to use sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, as they’re more tender and flavorful than the dry variety.

As for the pasta shape, Garten recommends fusilli, which has a corkscrew-like shape that soaks up extra dressing. After trying out the recipe, though, I’m confident any short-cut shape will work.

The olives (Garten recommends Kalamata), tomato, and feta all bring major umami to this summertime dish. The salty, briny mix-ins give the salad a distinctly Mediterranean taste that felt a little unusual, but I preferred it to the typical mayonnaise-dressed pasta salad.

The noodles and mix-ins are tossed in a dressing made with more sun-dried tomatoes, red wine vinegar, olive oil, capers, and garlic.

You’ll also need some freshly grated Parmesan and parsley to top the salad off.

The preparation is quick and easy.

As is the case with every good pasta-salad recipe (in my opinion, anyway), it’s not overly complicated or time-intensive to prep the ingredients.

While I boiled a big pot of salted water for the pasta, I chopped the fresh tomatoes, sliced the olives, and diced the feta and sun-dried tomatoes.

Garten calls for diced whole tomatoes, but I used cherry tomatoes and simply sliced them in half for the same effect.

The dressing calls for a food processor, but it’s possible to make it without one.

The best way to make this pasta-salad dressing is with a small food processor. You could also try an immersion blender or pitcher-style blender, but expect to spend some time scraping down the sides.

By whizzing more sun-dried tomatoes, red wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic, and capers in a food processor, I was able to break down the capers and tomatoes to maximize their flavor output.

I ended up with a fairly smooth, reddish dressing that was thin enough to coat every nook and cranny of the pasta.

If you don’t have any blade-loaded countertop appliances, give everything a fine chop and a good stir. The dressing won’t be as smooth and creamy as Garten intended, but your pasta will still benefit from the flavor-packed ingredients.

I dressed the pasta while it was still hot from the stove.

My pasta finished cooking in the time it took to prepare the dressing.

Although Garten recommends letting the noodles cool first, my pasta-salad-making experience has taught me that tossing hot noodles in an oily, salty dressing maximizes flavor. Warm pasta readily absorbs flavors better than after it cools.

I tossed the cooked pasta, salty mix-ins, and dressing together in a large bowl. I then let the pasta cool to room temperature before finishing the dish with Garten’s recommended chopped fresh parsley and a generous amount of freshly grated Parmesan.

Here, I made sure to add the cheese after the salad cooled so it wouldn’t all melt into a gooey mess. Instead, the Parmesan coated the noodles to hint at the creamy, rich dressing many of us associate with pasta salad.

This version, however, is big on savory flavors and pops of briny, chewy sun-dried tomatoes along with juicy, sweet fresh ones. I loved that the dish felt lighter than a mayo-drenched salad but just as satisfying.

The oil-based dressing holds up well, too. I doubled the recipe, and my household of two enjoyed pasta for several days.

I’m glad I found this recipe right before cookout season — I’ll be bringing this easy, crowd-pleasing dish to every summer occasion this year.

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