BLT Pasta Salad

BLT Pasta Salad combines a classic BLT sandwich with creamy pasta salad and features crispy bacon, juicy tomatoes, crisp lettuce, and fresh mozzarella balls tossed with a homemade ranch dressing.

Eek how is it one week until Memorial Day already?! That means grilling out with BBQ bacon burgers is right around the corner.

And of course you have to have side dishes! I usually rotate between Amish Macaroni Salad, Amish Potato Salad, or Italian Potato Salad.

This year I’m thinking of changing it up with a new kind of pasta salad – BLT Pasta Salad!

I know, I know – do you really need another macaroni salad recipe? Can’t you stick with your favorite tried and true dishes?

Yes, yes you do need this BLT pasta salad recipe because it’s loaded with bacon, lettuce, tomato, mozzarella cheese, and homemade ranch dressing.

All of the flavors you love about a classic BLT sandwich with a few added extras.

Bacon and ranch go hand in hand if you ask me, and as a Pittsburgher, we love to eat ranch on everything.

Much like my Caesar pasta salad, I made homemade ranch dressing to toss with the pasta. However, you can easily use store-bought.

For the pasta I used farfalle because the store was out of rotini.

I’m not entirely sure why all of the rotini was gone. Maybe everyone was making antipasto pasta salad at the same time? Personally bowtie pasta is more fun to eat.

The grape tomatoes put me in the mood for caprese salad, so I decided to throw in some fresh mozzarella balls from the local Italian deli.

Maybe it’s not traditional for bacon ranch pasta salad, but who could say no to fresh cheese?

What is a BLT?

A BLT is a sandwich made with bacon, lettuce, and tomato typically served on toasted bread with mayo. It’s a very simple yet delicious sandwich I ate growing up.

I decided to take those three easy ingredients and turn it into a BLT salad with pasta.

Ingredients For BLT Pasta Salad

Here are the ingredients you need for your bacon ranch pasta salad:

• Pasta: Short pasta shapes like rotini, penne, or bowtie work best for pasta salad as they hold the dressing well.
• Mayonnaise: Used as the base of ranch dressing
• Buttermilk: Used to thin out the mayo
• Lemon juice: Used to cut through the fat in the dressing
• Parsley, chives, dill, garlic, salt, and onion powder: Used to season homemade ranch dressing
• Bacon: It’s not BLT without bacon! Use your favorite kind
• Tomatoes: I like using grape tomatoes as they’re the same size as the mozzarella balls. However, you can chop up any tomato you’d like.
• Mozzarella: I like using mozzarella ciliegine (cherry-sized mozzarella balls) for their size, but you can also chop up fresh mozzarella.
• Red onion: Adds a bit of crunch and flavor
• Lettuce: I chose romaine, but you can use your favorite lettuce.

How To Make BLT Pasta Salad

Making your bacon pasta salad with ranch is easy! Here’s how:

1. Cook the pasta until al dente.
2. Make the ranch dressing by whisking together mayo, buttermilk, lemon juice, parsley, chives, dill, garlic, salt, and onion powder . Reserve half of the dressing.
3. Mix together pasta, half of the dressing, bacon, tomatoes, mozzarella, and onion.
4. Refrigerate at least 1 hour then stir in reserved dressing and lettuce right before serving.

Store leftover pasta salad in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. If it dries out, you can stir in a little more milk.

I like to add my dressing in two parts. The first half coats the bowties and ensures they don’t dry out and stick together. Plus they absorb the flavor better while still warm.

Adding the second half right before serving ensures your bacon pasta salad is creamy while eating (just in case the pasta absorbs too much of the dressing).

Should you rinse pasta for pasta salad?

Typically when you cook pasta, you don’t rinse it because you want to keep the starch on it.

However, for pasta salad you always want to rinse it under cold water for two reasons:

1. It quickly cools the pasta, keeping it from overcooking. Plus you don’t want to mix hot pasta with your dressing because it’ll melt too quickly.
2. It washes away the starch, which is what makes pasta clump together. By rinsing the pasta, it’ll remain loose and not sticking together.

What To Serve With BLT Pasta Salad

Because bacon ranch pasta salad is a picnic side dish, you’ll need some more food to go with it! Here’s what to serve with your BLT pasta salad:

• Avocado Burgers
• Pesto Burgers
• Spinach Ranch Dip
• No Bake Mini Cheesecakes
• Chocolate Chip Cut Out Cookies

First published June 27, 2016