Pasta salads are great lunch partners with sandwiches, and can often stand on their own as a main course. Find recipes for classic, creamy pasta salad, as well as other less traditional recipes, including Asian, Greek, and Italian versions.

Combine gemelli pasta with cannellini beans, goat cheese, spicy arugula, and a touch of Dijon mustard to make a satisfying salad with plenty of flavor. To make this dish up to one day ahead, prepare the pasta mixture and dressing, store them separately, and toss together when ready to serve.

This salad features the flavors of a traditional Italian antipasti platter, mixed with spiral-shaped pasta. Salami, mozzarella cheese, green olives, and jarred red peppers are called for, but feel free to add or substitute other ingredients, including tuna, provolone, anchovies, artichoke hearts, capers, or marinated mushrooms.

This fresh-tasting pasta salad is enhanced by a light mayonnaise dressing accented with mustard. To keep the texture and flavor of this salad at its best, toss the pasta mixture and dressing together right before serving.

This penne pasta salad has a high proportion of vegetables to make it a light and nutritious lunch. Roasting the broccoli and garlic brings out their natural sugars and deepens their flavor. Kalamata olives, jarred roasted red peppers, walnuts, and a lemony dressing round out the dish.

This refreshing salad requires only 15 minutes to put together. Soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles) are matched with cabbage, cucumber, and a bright lemon vinaigrette, then topped with feta. You can find soba in the international aisle of most supermarkets.

This elbow macaroni salad from chef Emeril Lagasse gets richness from crisp-cooked prosciutto and crumbled goat cheese. Olives, capers, tomatoes, fresh parsley, and a mustard vinaigrette punch up the flavor. The assembled salad can be stored, refrigerated, for up to one day.

A salty-sweet dressing of peanut butter, soy sauce, and rice vinegar adds a punch of flavor to whole-wheat pasta and broccoli. This salad is equally delicious served warm or chilled.

Sauteed shrimp, garlic, fresh mint, and Kalamata olives, along with a yogurt dressing, give this pasta salad a Greek accent. The salad calls for gemelli pasta as the base, but you can substitute any short pasta. Feel free to replace the shrimp with 12 ounces of thinly sliced boneless, skinless chicken breast.

This easy salad combines pasta shells with diced beefsteak tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, and fresh parsley. Mixing the warm, drained pasta with the tomatoes and mozzarella allows the shells to absorb the juice and gently melt the cheese.

Curly fusilli pasta is tossed with crunchy pieces of yellow pepper, blanched snow peas, scallions, crumbled feta cheese, and fresh cilantro in this easy salad. It can be made up to one day ahead; keep covered in the refrigerator, and add the scallions and cilantro just before serving.

Tender Israeli couscous is united with sauteed eggplant and shallots, then finished with fresh basil. This flavorful salad can be prepared in only 25 minutes.

Mix orzo pasta with sauteed zucchini, garlic, and fresh basil for this tasty salad. It takes only 20 minutes to put together and tastes best at room temperature, so make this salad and let it sit for a bit in a picnic basket or on the counter.

Why choose between potato salad and pasta salad when you can have them both? This salad combines elbow macaroni with boiled potatoes and tops them with a rich mayonnaise and sour cream dressing. Blanched green beans and crispy bacon add extra flavor and texture. This salad can be enjoyed immediately while warm, or refrigerated until ready to serve.

This summery salad combines medium-size curved pasta, such as conchiglie or orecchiette, with both green and yellow wax beans, baby arugula, toasted pine nuts, shaved Parmesan, and a vinaigrette dressing. If you can't find yellow wax beans, simply double the amount of green beans.

This vibrant pasta salad offers a market basket of ingredients usually found in the classic Italian minestrone soup. Use a short variety of pasta, such as gemelli, rotini, or penne, and top it with cannellini beans and an array of lightly cooked vegetables, as well as olive oil and vinegar. This salad can be eaten chilled or at room temperature.

Crunchy celery and red onion balance the creamy dressing for shells in this pasta side salad. Combining light mayonnaise and lemon juice shaves some calories from this dressing without sacrificing flavor.

This simple macaroni salad gets a jolt of color and flavor from peas, celery, scallions, and diced Black Forest ham. The creamy dressing is complemented by a dash of nutmeg. This salad can be made ahead and refrigerated in an airtight container for up to three hours.

Orecchiette pasta is infused with flavor from garlic, fresh basil, and parsley. This simple side salad can be bumped up to main-course status with the addition of your favorite protein, such as cooked poultry, meat, or beans.