Italian Layered Salad is full of chopped romaine, tomatoes, red bell pepper, olives, salami, and mozzarella cheese and topped with a Creamy Italian Dressing and pepperoncini peppers.
It is a great recipe to make in advance when you’re having guests over for dinner. Layered salads in general are one of my favorite things to make when I have a crowd to feed. Scroll down for more layered salad ideas.
The dressing for this salad is my favorite part. It is a thick, creamy mixture of mayonnaise, sour cream, dry Italian dressing mix and Parmesan cheese.
I also love the kick that the pepperoncini peppers add, especially when combined with creamy Italian dressing.
This salad makes a great accompaniment to Baked Ziti with Italian Sausage, Italian Sausage Manicotti, or Homestyle Ground Beef Casserole.
ITALIAN LAYERED SALAD RECIPE TIPS:
The ingredients are easily customizable. Leave out any you don’t like and add additional ones. Besides the ingredients listed in the recipe, cauliflower, roasted red peppers, zucchini, and carrots are also good.
This salad can be made up to 12 hours in advance and is best made in a large glass bowl or trifle dish.
The dressing gets spread on top like a frosting. I like to reserve some of the dressing in a bowl instead of spreading it all on top. With the dressing all on top, it can be hard to get the salad evenly coated in dressing.
Leftovers will get a little soggy once the dressing gets mixed in, but we’ve eaten it the next day and think it is still delicious.
Try These Other Amazing Layered Salads:
Italian Layered Salad
Ingredients
- 6 cups chopped romaine lettuce
- 1 1/2 cups halved grape tomatoes
- 1 medium cucumber, diced
- 1 small can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 cup black olives
- 1 cup small mozzarella balls
- 1/3 pound pepperoni, diced
- 1/2 medium red onion, sliced
- 6 to 8 pepperoncini peppers
Dressing
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 packet dry Italian dressing
- 1/3 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Layer the romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, garbanzo beans, red bell pepper, olives, mozzarella balls, and pepperoni in a large glass bowl or trifle dish.
- In a medium bowl, mix together dressing ingredients.Spread dressing on top of the pepperoni. Note: There is a lot of dressing. Feel free to reserve some in a bowl and serve alongside the salad.
- Arange red onion slices and peppers on top.Cover and chill for 1 to 12 hours.
Nutrition
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So good!
Fantastic, I made this last night but,I used white kidney beans in place of the garbanzo beans which tend to be hard. Very easy to make and everyone liked it. This is a keeper. I will be making this a lot this summer