Ditch the bottled vinaigrette and go Italian for pasta salad

Make this the year that you elevate your July Fourth pasta salad. By which we mean, avoid the temptation to simply dump a bottle of vinaigrette over cooked pasta and a bag of frozen peas and call it a day. Because turning out a far better pasta salad isn’t particularly difficult. And the results are so worth the (very little) extra effort.

For our improved pasta salad, we kept the Italian inspiration, but ditched the bottle of salad dressing. Instead, we borrowed the flavors and ingredients of a classic Florentine pasta — spinach, Parmesan and tomatoes — and repackaged them in a cool, refreshing salad.

There’s no mayonnaise in this pasta salad. The cloying sweetness wouldn’t sit right with the other ingredients. Instead, we went with the savory, smooth flavor of whole-milk ricotta cheese, which complements the peppery bite of the fresh basil and the tang of the balsamic glaze.