Dill Pickle Tuna Macaroni Salad

Dill Pickle Tuna Pasta Salad
My own creation

You cannot tell from the picture, but there is actually Albacore tuna in this pasta salad. It's similar to my Macaroni Salad, but slightly different. The regular macaroni salad (without tuna) has green pepper and black olives. (Instead of celery and dill pickles). This and my regular macaroni salad may not be anything new to you, but most macaroni salad I've eaten, whether it be at an Amish restaurant or potluck, is almost always sweet. I like those sweet versions too, and if you like a sweet macaroni salad please try my Broccoli Pasta Salad HERE (with bacon). I'm crazy about it!

Dill Pickle Tuna Pasta Salad

Ingredients
1 lb dry macaroni, any shape (I use GF)

2 small can Albacore Tuna, drained
6 hard boiled eggs, grated
1½ cups mayonnaise (Hellmans or Dukes)
1 - 2 Tbs yellow mustard
¾  cup celery, chopped
¾ cup sweet Vidalia onion, chopped
1 cup Baby Dill pickles (whole) chopped
2-3 Tbs cream, only if needed
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  Cook the eggs about 12 minutes; place in cold water and ice. This will make it easier to peel the eggs! Set aside. Boil the macaroni according to pkg directions and drain in a colander. After it has drained (without rinsing) place in very large bowl. I don't rinse the pasta anymore because it makes the salad too runny. Drain the tuna and add to macaroni, breaking up big chunks.

  

  While the macaroni is cooking, chop the celery, sweet onion and pickles. Add to the macaroni after it's been placed in the big bowl. Grate the peeled eggs into the macaroni with a grater. (I don't like big chunks!) Add mayonnaise and mustard. Stir this all together. Taste it and add salt and pepper if you think it needs it.

Add more mayo if needed. If you want it a little more creamy, just add some cream, but not too much. Hope you enjoy it! I am addicted to this, and it's so refreshing for summer on a hot day!

* This main dish Dill Pickle Tuna Pasta Salad is a lot like my Tuna Salad for sandwiches but with added pasta. In my regular tuna salad, though, I add sweet pickles, as well as dill pickles. Everybody asks me for the recipe!

Baked Feta Pasta - One Dish

I'd be very surprised if you haven't heard of or seen the Baked Feta Pasta dish that went viral on TikTok. It's been shared on every social media site and quickly got 3 million views! I made it & absolutely love it. But if you watch the original video you'll see that I have experimented & tweaked it to my liking. 

 I make this gluten free and its just as good as the original if you use the right GF pasta. I buy this or this GF pasta brand

Baked Feta Pasta. I add
Sun Dried Tomatoes, (not in original recipe) because cherry or grape tomatoes are not always sweet enough.

 Block Feta Cheese - I cut my tomatoes in half but you don't have to.

Feta Crumbles - Be sure to add Cream Cheese and extra virgin Olive Oil if all you can find are the crumbles

Baked Feta Pasta

I'm sure you've seen this recipe on TikTok or Instagram. The recipe originated from a lady in Finland around 2019 and quickly went viral. I was curious about it and decided to make it myself, but to my surprise, not even one grocery store in the whole Dayton area had any of the block feta. It was because EVERYONE was making this dish. I was disappointed but a lady at the grocery store told me I could use the feta crumbles, as long as I added cream cheese to the dish toward the end. Since then, I have made it 4 other times, but with the block feta.  I found it at Trader Joe's & Aldi has the best price. Really, I can't tell a big difference in using the crumbles with cream cheese verses the block feta, but the block is creamer. You can also add more olive oil.

The first 3 times I made this, I cooked the pasta separately, but one time I decided to try cooking the dry pasta in the pan with the feta & tomatoes & I'm so glad I did! It turned out great & the pasta got done in the oven with the added water to the pan. That's one less pot to wash!

I have a little bit of a different take on this recipe. Sometimes supposedly "sweet" cherry (or grape) tomatoes are not sweet at all, so my secret ingredient is sun dried tomatoes. (I add in with the cherry tomatoes). Since they're sweet, it really adds to the dish. I've been buying the dried version but for what I'm fixing today (Dec 30, 2021)  I bought the soft sun dried tomatoes in a jar with oil. I crave this dish!

Gluten Free Pasta I Buy

Ingredients - Heat oven to 400º

8 oz block Feta cheese (the block is creamer than the crumbles, but if you can't find the block, you can use the feta crumbles, adding some cream cheese & maybe milk or Half and Half to it toward the end of it being done. It's just as good & has always turned out great.

1 pint cherry or grape  tomatoes (the ones "on the vine" are sweeter!)

4 large cloves garlic, chopped or whole. (I cook this in the dish with everything but add a little more chopped fresh garlic after everything is done, if you like a lot of garlic like I do!)

½ - ¾ cup Sun Dried Tomatoes, chopped into small pieces (dry or in the jar)

Fresh mozzarella cheese or regular mozzarella (grated). Could add parmesan cheese if you like 

(Note: I'm going to use Butter cheese or Havarti next time (after everything is mixed together) because they're creamer).

8 - 12 oz dry pasta (3 cups dry - see note below). If you use 12 oz, you'll need to add more olive oil and heavy cream + pasta water.

½ cup extra Virgil olive oil (can add more after everything is mixed together)

3½ - 4 cups water (or enough to cover the pasta) If you're cooking your pasta separate, ignore this step

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh basil, chopped (if you dont have fresh, use dried but fresh is so much better

Red pepper flakes, optional (or fresh red pepper)

My other additions I haven't seen in other recipes - cut up fresh mushrooms & fresh onions & add to the tomato mixture before baking. I LOVE the addition of the mushrooms!

Note: any kind of pasta - spiral, penne, bow tie spaghetti, linguine, macaroni, etc, but I use gluten free pasta. My favorite brands below.

Directions

Place the cherry tomatoes in a 13"x 9" dish. Add chopped garlic, olive oil, pasta, salt & pepper, sun dried tomatoes, basil & water. Mix all together. You can add mozzarella if you want & red pepper flakes if you like a little heat. After everything is stirred together, place the feta cheese in the center making sure it touches the bottom of the dish. Pour olive oil on top. 

Cover with aluminum foil for the first 20 minutes so there'll be enough moisture to soften the pasta. After 20 mins take the aluminum foil off & bake 25-30 mins more. 

(Note - this time I made it (January 2024) I decided to cook the pasta separate in a different pan & I decided I'd rather do it that way.

Bake at 400º for 45-50 mins total or til the tomatoes have popped & feta cheese is brown. If you need to, put it under the broiler to toast it a little. (Note: original recipe says to cook at 400º for 30 mins, then turn it up to 450 for 10 minutes to brown the top).

You can either add the fresh chopped basil to the other ingredients or put it in the dish after everything is done. I've seen it done both ways. 

* If cooking the pasta with the feta & tomatoes in the oven, make sure the pasta is covered with water or it might turn out too dry. This happened the first time I cooked the dry pasta with the dish, so if this is your first time making it, you should probably cook the pasta on top of the stove in a separate pan.

After it's done, add more mozzarella & stir. You can add a little milk or cream if you want. After stirring, it's time to eat! I really, really love this dish! Let me know what you think of the added ingredients & if yours turned out ok cooking the dry pasta with the other ingredients.

Macaroni Salad - No Sugar

I am not a huge fan of sweet macaroni salad. I will eat it and enjoy it, but several years ago a little old man brought his version of macaroni salad to a church potluck and I loved it so much that I had to have his recipe. That was many years ago and I have lost that recipe, so I had to try and come up with a version on my own, trying to replicate his. I think I pretty much figured it out since I remember some of the basic ingredients. I do know for sure it was not sweet. 

My Favorite Macaroni Salad
That's Not Sweet

There are many more ingredients you can add to macaroni salad, which I don't add to my recipe, and I've listed some below as optional. Actually my recipe is similar to my potato salad in the fact it has lots of eggs and real mayonnaise. If you do prefer sweet macaroni salad, just as add some

sweet pickle relish and a little sugar. I hope you enjoy this!

Ingredients
1 lb dry macaroni, any shape
6 hard boiled eggs, grated
1½ cups mayonnaise (Hellmans or Dukes)
1 - 2 Tbs yellow mustard
2/3 - 3/4 cup green pepper, chopped
2/3 - 3/4 cup sweet Vidalia onion, chopped
1 - 6oz can black olives, drained and sliced
2-3 Tbs Milk, if needed
Salt and pepper to taste

I usually add the following seasonings to taste also - paprika, onion powder, garlic powder & celery salt

Optional- sweet pickle relish, chopped celery, grated carrots, canned tuna, frozen green peas. I love this with tuna, as a main dish!

To make this as a main dish pasta salad, add Tuna, Diced Ham or Chicken. Even crab or shrimp added would be good!

You cannot tell from the picture, but I added albacore tuna to my macaroni salad today (June, 2025) and I am addicted to it! Things I did different from the above recipe - I added celery and left off the green pepper and black olives, making it much like my Tuna Salad for sandwiches but with added pasta. 

I Love My Macaroni Salad!

Instructions

Cook the eggs and after about 12 minutes, place in cold water and ice. This will make it easier to peel the eggs! Set aside. Boil the macaroni according to pkg directions and drain in a colander, rinsing the starch off with cold water, so it won't stick together. After it has drained, place in very large bowl.

While the macaroni is cooking, chop the green pepper and sweet onion. Then slice the olives. Add to the macaroni. Grate the eggs into the macaroni with a grater. (I don't like big chunks!) Add mayonnaise and mustard. Stir this all together. Add black olives. Taste it and add salt and pepper if you think it needs it.

Add more mayo if needed. If you want it a little more creamy, just add some milk or cream, but not too much. Hope you enjoy it!

Pasta Broccoli Salad with Bacon

My Favorite Pasta Salad

This  is by far my favorite pasta salad and I fix it when I want to take it to a special event. One of my dearest friends, Shirley Siddall, gave me this recipe in 1990 and I've never seen this exact one on Pinterest, so it is unique. The recipe makes a huge bowl full. In fact it almost fills up one of those large Tupperware bowls that used to be sold in the 1970"s and 1980's. You remember. They came in green or yellow. If you never had one chances are your mom or grandmother did.

I have to warn you. This is a sweet salad, but it's not as sickeningly sweet as some of those other sweet broccoli salads. In fact you can control the sweetness. I don't add as much sugar as the original recipe calls for. Also, keep in mind the bacon is essential in this salad. Mozzarella cheese also helps it not taste so sweet.
Everyone who tries this loves it and I hope you do too!

Pasta Broccoli Salad with Bacon

Ingredients

1 - 16 oz box Bowtie Pasta (you can substitute gluten free pasta. My favorite GF pastas is Barilla in the blue box or  Ronzoni in the yellow box. Also, Trader Joe's and Aldi have GF pasta)

1 large head fresh broccoli, cut into small pieces (can use cauliflower too)

¾ - 1 cup sweet red onion or sweet Vidalia onion, chopped (to take some of the hotness away from the red onion you can soak the chopped onion in ice water for 30 mins - 1 hour)

1 lb pkg Hickory Smoked Bacon, cooked

3 cups Mozzarella cheese, grated

Sauce

1-1½ cups Hellman's mayonnaise or Duke's if you eat GF (not salad dressing)

½ cup sour cream

½ - ¾ cup sugar (The original calls for 1 cup sugar but I think that's too much. Just go by your taste)

3 - 6 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar (I use 2-3 at the most. Go by your taste here too)

Salt to taste, if needed

Cook pasta as directed on package. Drain in cold water rinsing off some of the starch so it won't stick together. Place in large bowl.
In the meantime, place bacon on large cookie sheet that had been sprayed with oil in 375º oven and cook til crisp. Remove from oven and place on paper towels to drain.
Put onions, broccoli and mozzarella cheese in same bowl with the pasta.
Make the sauce snd slowly stir it in with the pasta mixture, small amounts at a time, to make sure you don't get too much. Break up the bacon, but do not add the bacon til right before serving. If I take this to a pot-luck or family holiday dinner, I put the bacon in a baggie, placing it on top of the pasta. If the bacon is cold from storing it in the refrigerator, heat it up on about 30 seconds in the microwave before adding to the salad. Stir and serve!

Pizza Salad - Recipe

This is a great recipe if your family loves pizza! Serve it with bread and they'll love it. The great thing is that you can serve it hot as a main dish or cold as a salad. We liked it both ways!

Ingredients

• 8 ounces uncooked spiral pasta or any other shape
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese (not the dry kind)
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup diced fresh tomatoes or sliced cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup (4 ounces) cubed cheddar cheese (or colby is good)
• 1 cup (4 ounces) cubed mozzrella cheese
• 1/2 cup red onions or sweet Vidalia onions, chopped
• 1/2 cup sliced pepperoni (about 1-1/2 ounces)
• sliced or whole black olives 
•  1/2 cup sweet green pepper, sweet red pepper or both, chopped
• Optional - garlic powder or fresh garlic (chopped), onion powder, sweet basil, sliced or diced banana peppers

Directions

• Cook pasta according to package directions. In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the oil, Parmesan cheese, vinegar, oregano, salt, garlic powder and pepper; shake well.
• While pasta is cooking, place pepperoni on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed, in a 425º oven and cook till crisp, about 10-15 minutes. It will be crisp (like bacon) after you take it out and drain on a paper towel. Wait till right before serving to add crisp pepperoni.
• Drain pasta; rinse in cold water. In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients. Add pasta. Pour dressing over all; toss to coat. Serve warm as a main dish. If you want it cold  refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. Yield: 7 servings