When you love BLTs you’ll love this recipe for BLT Pasta Salad! Made with crispy bacon, juicy tomatoes, crisp lettuce, tender pasta, and wealthy dressing, BLT Pasta Salad completely mimics the flavors of a basic BLT sandwich in pasta salad kind.
Impressed by a basic BLT sandwich, this unforgettable pasta salad is made with crispy bacon, candy tomatoes, contemporary lettuce, and a wealthy creamy dressing. Discuss genius!
Not solely is BLT Pasta Salad insanely scrumptious, however additionally it is probably the most requested potluck facet dish ever. I feel it goes with out saying that any dish with bacon is the primary to vanish at a celebration and this pasta salad not solely options bacon, however is sudden, but delivers basic flavors that folks know and love. It’s merely a favorite–and fairly easy to make as properly!
Whether or not taking this dish to a celebration or serving it with do-it-yourself burgers, you want this BLT Pasta Salad in your life. It’s simply too good to move up!
Notes on Elements
- Pasta: Any noodle with curves or ridges will work for this pasta salad. These curves and ridges will assist to catch the dressing and guarantee each chunk is flavorful. Use common, complete wheat, or gluten-free noodles comparable to rotini, corkscrew, or cavatelli.
- Bacon: You’ll be able to’t have BLT with out bacon! Thick-cut bacon is greatest in order that it actually provides heartiness and chew to the pasta salad.
- Lettuce: I like to recommend utilizing hearts of romaine lettuce for this pasta salad. It provides crispness to this dish and stands up properly to the dressing.
- Tomatoes: The riper the tomato, the higher the style. When you have vine-ripened tomatoes, use these when in season, however make sure you de-seed and finely chop to forestall the pasta salad from turning into watery. I personally choose to make use of cherry or grape tomatoes, as they’re simple to seek out year-round and don’t must be deseeded earlier than including to the dish.
- Mayonnaise: Use low-fat or full-fat mayonnaise to kind the bottom of the dressing. Fats-free mayo is filled with sugar and components that take away from the style of this salad.
Methods to make BLT Pasta Salad
This pasta salad comes collectively in 4 simple steps: Cook dinner the pasta, fry the bacon, combine collectively the dressing, and toss all of it collectively. It’s extra environment friendly to fry the bacon whereas the pasta is cooking and whisk collectively the dressing and chop up the lettuce and tomatoes whereas the bacon and pasta are cooling. By doing this, the parts of the pasta salad are prepared on the similar time, that means much less time general within the kitchen.
Step One: Put together Pasta
- Convey a big pot of water to a speedy boil.
- Season the boiling water with salt–this will assist to taste the pasta. Then add within the noodles to the seasoned boiling water and prepare dinner in accordance with the package deal instructions.
- As soon as cooked, drain the pasta, however DO NOT rinse your pasta! This causes the pasta to lose taste and the starch that helps the dressing adhere to the noodles.
- Let the pasta cool earlier than tossing it with the remaining substances. Professional Tip: Cool your pasta rapidly by spreading out on a big rimmed sheet pan and putting it within the fridge for 10-Quarter-hour.
Step Two: Put together the Bacon
Whereas the water is coming to a boil for the pasta, use this time to both pan-fry or bake bacon. Both possibility works nice. Baking bacon is hands-off and pan-frying the bacon is barely sooner. It’s also an amazing technique when the summer season temps are simply too sizzling to activate the oven! Be mindful whatever the technique of baking you employ, it would be best to reserve some bacon drippings for the dressing.
- To bake the bacon, lay the bacon slices out onto a baking rack fitted over a rimmed sheet pan. Bake at 400 levels F, till crispy and browned. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the drippings from the sheet pan for the dressing. Then let the bacon cool on a paper-towel-lined plate. As soon as cooled, cube up into bite-sized items.
- To pan-fry the bacon, cube up the bacon into bite-sized items. Pan-fry the bacon over medium-high warmth, till brown and crispy. Take away the cooked bacon to a plate lined with paper towels to chill. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease to make use of within the pasta salad dressing.
Step Three: Put together Dressing and Greens
Whereas the pasta and bacon end cooking, use that point to clean, dry, and chop your lettuce, chives, and tomatoes for the pasta salad. Whereas the pasta and bacon are cooling, use that point to whisk collectively the BLT pasta salad dressing.
- For the dressing, whisk collectively the mayonnaise, reserved bacon drippings, sugar, vinegar, and shallots collectively. Combine till the sugar is absolutely dissolved.
Step 4: Assemble BLT Pasta Salad
- In a big mixing bowl, mix the Toss the lettuce, bacon, tomatoes, cooled pasta, chopped chives, and dressing, and toss properly.
Step 5: Serve
I mentioned this pasta salad got here collectively in 4 simple steps, not 5! However the fifth step actually would not depend as work. It’s merely serving this scrumptious bacon lettuce tomato pasta salad that may win you rave evaluations!
You’ll be able to serve BLT Pasta Salad instantly after assembling, for a barely heat pasta salad. Or chill for half-hour earlier than serving, which is my advice. This may enable the flavors to marry collectively a bit higher and improve the flavour.
Ideas for Serving Safely
To make this BLT salad versatile for an out of doors gathering, because it does comprise mayo, nestle your serving bowl on prime of a bigger serving bowl that has been stuffed with ice or ice packs. This may hold micro organism from rising for a minimum of 2 hours–probably for much longer, particularly when you change out your ice or ice pack.
MORE SUMMER POTLUCK FAVORITES
Identical to my recipe for Potato Salad with Bacon and Baked Beans with Bacon, this recipe for BLT Pasta Salad is all the time a success! Individuals simply love bacon 😉 After all, you’ll be able to by no means have too many dishes at a potluck or picnic. Beneath are just a few extra favorites.
When you tried this recipe for BLT Pasta Salad, I might love so that you can go away a remark and evaluation under.
BLT Pasta Salad
Made with crispy bacon, juicy tomatoes, crisp lettuce, tender pasta, and wealthy dressing, BLT Pasta Salad completely mimics the flavors of a basic BLT sandwich in pasta salad kind.
Servings: 15
Energy: 271kcal
Prevents your display from going darkish whereas getting ready the recipe.
Directions
-
Cook dinner pasta in accordance with package deal instructions. As soon as the pasta has been cooked, drain, DO NOT RINSE, and funky the pasta fully. You’ll be able to pace the method up by spreading the cooked pasta onto a rimmed baking sheet.
-
Whereas the pasta is cooking, cube the bacon into ½-inch strips and prepare dinner over medium-high warmth till the bacon is crisp and browned. Take away the cooked bacon to a plate lined with paper towels to chill. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease to make use of within the pasta salad dressing.
-
In a small bowl, combine collectively the reserved bacon drippings, mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, and salt for the pasta salad dressing.
-
Toss the dressing, cooked and cooled pasta, chives, tomatoes, lettuce, and bacon bits collectively till evenly distributed.
-
Refrigerate for half-hour or as much as 24 hours earlier than serving.
Notes
Noodles: Use any number of noodles with curved edges, simply as campenelle, corkscrew, or rotini. To make this a Gluten-Free BLT Pasta Salad, use gluten-free pasta.
Tomatoes: If utilizing vine-ripened tomatoes, make sure you seed them earlier than including them to the pasta salad, to forestall the pasta salad from turning into watered down.
Lettuce: I really like the crispness of hearts of romaine or iceberg lettuce on this pasta salad. Each arise properly to the dressing.
Bake Bacon: Fairly than pan-fry the bacon, you’ll be able to choose to bake your bacon. To bake the bacon, lay the bacon slices out onto a baking rack fitted over a rimmed sheet pan. Bake at 400 levels F, till crispy and browned. Reserve 1 tablespoon of drippings out of your pan for the dressing. Let the bacon cool, then cube up into bite-sized items.
Storage: Retailer any leftover BLT pasta salad within the fridge for as much as 3 days in an hermetic container.
Diet
Energy: 271kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 7g | Fats: 12g | Saturated Fats: 2g | Ldl cholesterol: 22mg | Sodium: 696mg | Potassium: 294mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 965IU | Vitamin C: 9.9mg | Calcium: 19mg | Iron: 1.2mg
This publish was initially printed in 2018 however has been up to date in 2022.
