I am not sure who is the creator of pasta salad’s, but let me say, I love them. It’s such a versatile dish. You can make them healthy with loads of vegetables or you can make them less healthy with heavy cheeses and meats. Either way they are delicious.
This week I made a classic American inspired pasta salad. Bacon, lettuce, and tomato with drum roll please….RANCH. A BLT is an American classic and of course, so is ranch…especially in the midwest where I am from.
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I am not sure what time of year you are reading this, but for me when writing it, it’s almost Labor Day Weekend. The end of summer. Which I hate saying, because summer is my all-time favorite season. Even though I am from Michigan, I hate the cold and I hate the snow…ironic that I still choose to live here, right? But hey, staying close to family is more important, right?
I was invited to a little pre-Labor Day Weekend get-together. Apparently a 3-day weekend is not enough for us lol. I offered to bring a side dish. My go-to is always pasta salad, especially in the summer. If you explored my previous blog posts before you would know this. I posted recipes for Bruschetta Pasta Salad and Italian Pasta Salad in the few months before this one. But like I said before, it’s versatile!
You can guess that for this pre-Labor Day get-together, I made pasta salad again. This time I decided to make it as American as possible. When I think of our food I think of bacon of course and ranch. This led me to decide to make the American classic: BLT. Bonus points: this only has 5 ingredients and is super easy.
I think you can guess what those 5 ingredients are: bacon, lettuce, tomato, pasta, and ranch. This couldn’t be any more simple.
To be time efficient, the ingredients that you need to cook will take the longest, so I would start with those: the noodles and the bacon. For the pasta, begin with boiling water and following the instructions on the package for cooking. Once cooked, drain, and put aside to cool.
While the water for the noodles is coming to a boil, start prepping and cooking the bacon. In the past, I always cooked bacon in a frying pan and I think we all know the troubles with that. Grease spews everywhere and can be painful! lol Recently, my mom taught me a new way and I used it for this recipe. You start with place the bacon strips on a baking sheet. I always lay aluminum foil on every baking sheet before using. No matter what I am making. I know I will not scrub the sheet good enough once I am done using it, so this keeps them cleaner longer.
Once the bacon strips are laid out, place them in the oven. This is the crucial part: do not preheat the oven before placing the bacon in! Turn the oven on to 400°F once the bacon strips are in the oven. Bacon turns out better if it is cooked with the temperature slowly increasing. Because every oven takes a different amount of time to heat up, I like to set a timer for 10 minutes, check on the bacon, and then continue to set the timer until crispy and done. This takes 30 minutes in my oven.
While the noodles and the bacon are cooking, dice up the tomatoes and the romaine lettuce. I put these directly in the bowl that I will be serving the pasta salad in. No reason to use any extra dishes!
Once the bacon is crispy, take it out of the oven and allow to cool. Once cool, diced up the bacon into little bits and add to the tomatoes and romaine lettuce.
Next, add in the cooled down noodles and mix together. This is when you should add the ranch as well.
You will want to put this in the refrigerator for at least an hour for everything to cool. Serve and enjoy!
BLT Ranch Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 16 oz Noodles (I prefer bowtie/Farfalle)
- 12 oz Smokehouse Bacon
- 4 stalks Romaine Lettuce
- 2 Tomatoes
- 3/4 cup Ranch add a little at a time, as everyone's preference is different
Instructions
- Boil water and cook noodles according to box's instructions
- Lay out bacon on a baking sheet and place in oven
- After bacon is in oven, turn on oven to 400°F- you want it to heat up while the bacon is in the oven.
- Set timer for 10 minutes to check bacon, as every oven warms up at different speeds. Mine bacon got crispy after 30 minutes.
- Dice tomatoes and add to serving bowl
- Cut up romaine lettuce and add to serving bowl
- Once bacon is crispy (30 minutes), take out baking sheets, turn off oven, and let the bacon cool
- Once cool, either crumble with your hand or using a knife, dice up the bacon strips into little pieces
- Add bacon to serving bowl with the tomatoes and lettuce
- Once noodles are cooked, drained, and a little cooler, add to serving bowl
- Mix
- Add ranch to bowl and mix
- Place in refrigerator for at least an hour to cool
- Serve and Enjoy!
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1 Comment
Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad - Just Jennifer Renee · February 5, 2024 at 2:07 am
[…] salads! If you want to check out my other recipes click here for each: Bruschetta Pasta Salad, BLT Ranch Pasta Salad, Italian Pasta Salad, and Greek Pasta Salad. All are perfect for a summer […]