Italian Potato Salad
This Italian potato salad is a light, flavorful version of one of America’s favorite picnic foods.
If you love olive oil and garlic, this recipe is for you. I love almost all kinds of potato salad, but this one is hands down, my favorite.
It’s such a simple recipe, but so satisfying, combining the comforting texture and flavor of potatoes, with the deeper flavors of olive oil, and garlic.
I made a bit batch of this earlier this month, and ate it every day for a week.
While this potato salad doesn’t contain any mustard, or mayo, I think it’s the perfect potato salad for summer.
Ingredients for Italian Potato Salad
There are as many different versions of this recipe as there are food blogs, and there’s no wrong recipe, but in my opinion, this salad is best when you keep it simple and let the flavors really shine. That also makes it easy to make a simple side dish that doesn’t rush you to the store to grab ingredients.
- Potatoes. I prefer to use small red potatoes. Because they’re a little more waxy, to hold their shape as opposed to a more starchy, fluffy potato.
- Extra virgin olive oil. The vibrant and refreshing flavor of olive oil makes this a perfect salad for summer, giving it a light and refreshing feel.
- Garlic. This is a big part of the the flavor in your salad, so be sure to crush whole cloves of garlic to enjoy the full flavor.
- Parsley. Curley parsley is pretty, and has a subtle, almost floral aroma. Italian parsley has a stronger flavor, and smoother texture. Both are good, but it’s only right to use Italian in a recipe with Italian in the name.
- Salt and pepper. Pepper adds a bit of extra flavor complexity, and salt is critical, in my opinion for bringing all the flavors together. One thing to be aware of with potatoes, is that they seem to absorb salt over time, and you may find yourself adding more if you have leftovers, or aren’t serving it right away.
Additions and substitutions
I don’t actually have any substitution recommendations. Sure, you can change up the type of potato. You could also change up the oils or anything else, but it would definitely not be the same salad if you do.
As far as additions, Those are almost endless.
You could easily add shallots, halved cherry tomatoes, olives, red wine vinegar, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, red onion, and more.
How to make Italian Potato Salad
- Wash potatoes, place them in a large saucepan, and cover with water an inch or two above the tops of your potatoes.
- Bring to a low boil, and boil potatoes until they are just fork tender
- When the potatoes are done cooking, transfer immediately to a bowl of cold water. To cool them rapidly, I place the bowl in the sink, and run cold water into it so the potatoes don’t have a chance to warm the water up.
- While the potatoes are cooking, prepare the dressing.
- Warm garlic to about 100ºF, and pour into a bowl or jar.
- Crush and mince garlic, and add to warm olive oil.
- Mince parsley and stir into garlic and oil mixture.
- Let marinate until potatoes are ready.
- When potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut into 1/2-1 inch chunks (depending on your preference), and place in a large mixing bowl.
- Drizzle with garlic oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Toss together, and serve.
< This salad can be store in the refrigerator for up to a week, but is best served at room temperature, so I recommend removing it ahead of time to come to room temperature before serving.
What to serve with Italian potato salad
Since Italian potato salad is better at room temperature than cold, it’s the perfect accompaniment to a picnic, or cookout. It’s a great side to hamburgers, Barbecue, Barbecued meatballs, skillet pepperoncini chicken, and lemon garlic chicken thighs. An excellent fresh, green vegetable accompaniment for it is fresh green beans – especially Italian green beans.
More recipes for you
If you like Italian potato salad, here are some more Italian-theme recipes for you:
- Italian Peasant Soup
- Summer Italian Zucchini Soup
- Italian Lemon Cookies
- Italian Meringue Buttercream Icing (definitely the best cupcake icing in existence!)
- Slow cooker faux Italian Beef
Italian Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 1 LB red baby potatoes
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 6 cloved garlic
- 3 T. fresh parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Wash potatoes, place them in a large pot, and cover with water an inch or two deep over the tops of your potatoes.
- Bring to a low boil over medium heat, (skip to step 5 while potatoes are cooking) and boil until potatoes are just fork tender. You don’t want to overcook them and cause them to by mushy.
- When the potatoes are done, drain potatoes, and transfer immediately to a bowl of ice water to stop cooking process and cool.
- While the potatoes are cooking, prepare the dressing.
- Warm garlic to about 100ºF, and pour into a small bowl or jar.
- Mince garlic, and add to warm olive oil.
- Mince parsley and stir into garlic and oil mixture.
- Let marinate until potatoes are ready.
- When potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut into bite-sized pieces, and place in a large mixing bowl.
- Drizzle with garlic oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Toss together, and serve.
- This salad can be store in the refrigerator for up to a week, but is best served at room temperature, so I recommend removing it ahead of time to come to room temperature before serving.
Wow, I didn’t expect the Italian Potato Salad to skip the mayo entirely. Instead, it relies on the vibrant flavor of extra virgin olive oil and lots of garlic. I was reading this while waiting for my coffee, and it got me thinking-should I add some cherry tomatoes next time?
In step 5, should you warm the olive oil?
this italian potato salad looks absolutely delicious – the combination of olive oil and garlic sounds perfect for summer picnics! thanks for sharing this tasty recipe at scritchy scratchy.