The 2-Ingredient Pasta Salad Dressing I Wish I’d Tried Sooner (No Mayo or Olive Oil!)

Summertime is the best time mainly because it’s pasta salad time, baby. No matter where I go — picnic, graduation party, or cookout — there’s always a big bowl of cold noodles with colorful mix-ins on the table. It’s one of those universal hits that’s easy to change up, so it simultaneously feels comforting and fresh.

My latest update is also low effort and a little unexpected. Castello’s whipped dip has become my new go-to dressing. After swirling into your next pasta salad, it could very well become yours, too.

fIf you ask me, Castello created a tub filled with spreadable luxury. Similar to a Gournay cheese or its French-inspired cousin Alouette, the soft cheese is seasoned with a mix of herbs and spices. In this case of Castello’s Garlic & Herb Whipped Dip, it’s dried parsley, basil, and garlic, along with garlic powder — for extra potency — salt, white pepper, and horse radish.

There’s a brightness from parsley, a deep basil undertone, and a light tang that’s reminiscent of a good crème fraîche. Best of all, it’s whipped, which, texturally, incorporates a ton of air into the mix, making it light and fluffy rather than heavy or dense.

The easiest way to enjoy this dip, without a doubt, is simply atop your thin crackers or alongside a summer crudite platter — after all, this is the season for it. (The light nature of the cheese can sometimes get lost against the weight of a cracker with more heft or flatbread.) These days, it’s most often paired with pasta.

To serve four, simply combine 2 to 2.5 ounces of the cheese with a splash of milk (or buttermilk, if you have it, to really play on the spread’s natural tanginess) and a half cup of pasta water and voilà — you’ve got a dressing for your pasta salad. Of course, this works wonderfully with chilled pasta. If you’re looking for a dinner refresh, simmer the whipped cheese in a pan with roasted vegetables and blistered cherry tomatoes and a few tablespoons of pasta water (for 3 to 5 minutes). It evokes notes of a creamy vodka sauce. 

Don’t stop at crackers, crudite, or pasta, though. It’s equally powerful as a sandwich spread (try it on a roasted veggie panini with heaps of eggplant and zucchini) or when dolloped onto a bowl of creamy soup or even a baked potato. 

Got a 1-ingredient upgrade to share? Tell us about it in the comments below.