BLT pasta salad is a BLT minus the bread – bacon, lettuce, tomato, and creamy dressing tossed with perfectly cooked pasta!
BLT pasta salad is my answer to the fact that April is National BLT Month. Yep, you read that right…there’s a whole month dedicated to BLTs. It’s funny, there’s a day or a week or a month dedicated to just about every food that you could possibly think of, some of them very specific. For example, February 11 is National Peppermint Patty Day…sounds like my kind of day.
I love a good bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. It’s one of my favorite deli orders and one of the foods that I crave when I am not feeling well. Something about crispy, salty bacon piled on toasted bread with a couple of perfect slices of tomato, some crunchy lettuce, and a little mayonnaise…it doesn’t get much better than that. And while I am sure that they exist, I don’t think there are many people on this earth who don’t like a BLT.
The problem is that I didn’t really want to write a recipe for a BLT sandwich here. I don’t think I have to tell you guys how to spread mayo on some bread and stack some ingredients on it. I tried to think of some interesting combinations to make a BLT sandwich, but I really couldn’t improve on the original. I honestly think it’s just perfect plain and simple (though I do occasionally like to throw some avocado on for a BLAT or maybe an egg for a BELT).
If you like BLTs, you’ll love this BLT pasta salad!
Then it dawned on me….BLT pasta salad. Now, I’ll be honest, that wasn’t my original idea. I had a BLT pasta salad several years ago at Southern Star. It’s pretty basic-just BLT ingredients tossed with pasta instead of served between two slices of bread. I whisked up a little buttermilk dressing to toss it with instead of just basic mayonnaise, but this is a simple and delicious salad that’s pretty filling too. I hope you guys will try this BLT pasta salad!
4-8
15 minPrep Time:
20 minCook Time:
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Ingredients
- 8 ounces short pasta like rotini or penne
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons buttermilk
- 1 green onion, thinly sliced
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon dry dill weed
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
- 8 strips bacon, cooked until crisp, drained, and crumbled
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, washed and halved
- 1/2 head romaine lettuce, chopped into bite-size pieces, rinsed, and dried
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
- While the pasta is cooking, whisk together the mayonnaise, buttermilk, green onion, paprika, salt, and cayenne. Set aside.
- Drain the pasta and rinse with cold water. Allow to drain for five minutes, shaking the colander occasionally.
- Place the pasta in a large bowl. Add the lettuce, tomato, bacon, and dressing and stir to combine. Serve immediately or chill before serving.
Click here to print the recipe for BLT pasta salad!
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