If you are a pickle lover, this dill pickle pasta salad is about to become your new warm-weather obsession. Creamy, tangy, loaded with fresh dill and chunks of cheddar, it is the kind of side dish that gets talked about long after the plate is empty.

My little sister was absolutely obsessed with pickles growing up. As in wrap-in-a-napkin-and-eat-it-walking-around-the-house obsessed. However, I have always been pretty against them until I realized that I have a husband who loves them so every once in a while, I find a recipe that is perfectly suited for him and this is that recipe.

This pasta salad is everything a summer side dish should be. The pasta gets tossed in pickle juice right after cooking, so it soaks up that bright, briny flavor before the dressing even goes on.
The creamy garlic aioli and sour cream base take it somewhere rich and indulgent, while the fresh dill and chopped pickles keep every bite zippy and fresh. It comes together fast, gets better as it chills, and is always the first bowl emptied.

Ingredients For Dill Pickle Pasta Salad

This is much better than your run-of-the-mill macaroni salad. The dill pickle flavors mesh with the creaminess of the dressing and the real mayonnaise.  Here is what you need and why:

• Rotini Pasta: The spiral shape is perfect here because it catches and holds onto the creamy dressing in every single bite. Other pasta shapes like cavatappi or bowtie pasta would work too, but rotini is my preference.
• Dill Pickle Juice: Tossed with the warm pasta right after cooking so it absorbs directly into the noodles for briny flavor from the inside out.
• Mayonnaise: Adds richness and body to the dressing as the creamy base.
• Garlic Aioli: Brings a bold, garlicky depth to the dressing that takes it well beyond a basic pasta salad.
• Sour Cream: Lightens the dressing slightly while adding a subtle tang that complements the pickle flavor beautifully.
• Salt and Pepper: Season the whole salad and can be adjusted to taste.
• Fresh Dill: The signature herb that ties all the pickle flavors together and adds a bright, fresh finish.
• Pickles: Sweet petite or dill pickles chopped throughout the salad for that satisfying briny crunch in every bite.