Tomorrow is a special occasion BBQ, a belated birthday bash for the hubs with our game night peeps. Now, anyone who follows my blog knows that I am more than a bit fond of cooking, baking, and eating, but I'm also over the moon about get-togethers with friends.
And when I have a feastival, let's just say there's no shortage of comestibles. Tomorrow's menu alone includes delectable delights such as homemade ham and cheese sliders, Boston Cream cupcakes, and the subject of this post, Bacon Ranch Macaroni Salad.
Boy, ranch can be a bit of divisive topic. It has its fanatical adherents and its detractors. I also love the American visiting Europe stereotype of a loud, brash person in a fine restaurant on the continent bellowing, "Ya'll got any ranch?"
The thing is, I love the herby, garlicy flavor of ranch, and I have even made my own ranch mix for years, because I despised all the additives (often added sugar) in much of the commercially available ranch dressings, dips, and mixes. And yes, I will get off my flintlocks and post my bulk ranch mix recipe soon.
Anyway, back to the salad. In my cupboard I have a gallon ziptop bag that contains what I like to call The Pasta Puttanesca noodles. You know how when you make a recipe and don't use the entire bag of pasta in it, and all of a sudden you have a ton of bags with pasta remnants? Well, I just throw all those bits of pasta in a bag and save it for pasta salad occasions.
The Pasta Puttanesca term is a reference to Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events movie when the Baudelaire's made the dish with all the random bits of pasta lurking about Count Olaf's kitchen.
So, in order to whip up my bacon-laden, ranch-flavored pasta salad, I started by frying up a pack of bacon. The recipe uses eight slices, and wouldn't you know it, some denizens of my house floated right into the kitchen to relieve me of the stress of having surplus bacon lurking about.
After the bacon was cooked and cooling on a paper towel, I boiled a pot of water and cooked the pasta for about ten minutes. While the pasta was cooking I diced up some cheddar cheese, green onions, and chopped up the cooled bacon into bits.
Next, I got out a bowl and plunked some mayo, ranch mix, salt, pepper, and my favorite thing ever, buttermilk into the bowl. I love buttermilk!
After giving all the ingredients in the bowl a thorough whisking, I drained the pasta and rinsed it in cold water. All the different shapes present in the colander really tickles my whimsical side.
After making sure the pasta had drained well, I plopped it in to the mixing bowl with the ranch sauce, scraped the bacon, cheese, and green onions on top, and using a rubber spatula, gave it all a good mixing.
Then, yes, I taste tested it. And that is when I faced the hardest part of my day so far....I really wanted to just sit down and eat about half the bowl. It's that good right off the bat, but honestly, I make this salad the day before it is to be served because it goes from awesome to sublime after a good chill in the fridge.
Sometimes I even get all bougie and garnish the top with more chopped green onions and bacon, but as I had homemade rolls yet to bake for the sliders and cupcakes to finish up, I just threw the bowl in the fridge to chill.
I also think olives and chopped cherry tomatoes would be super yummy in this salad, but a bunch of my game peeps are on the picky side, so I kept it simple.
Then again, sometimes simple is the way to go馃槉
Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad
3 cups of dried pasta (macaroni, rotini, shells, whatever floats your boat!)
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 TBSP ranch mix
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
4 green onions chopped
8 ounces of cheddar cheese, cubed
salt and pepper to tasteCook, drain, and rinse pasta in cool water.
In a bowl, add mayonnaise, buttermilk, ranch mix, salt and pepper. Whisk until well combined. Add pasta, cheese, bacon, and green onion and stir until well-combined.
Refrigerate until well-chilled, I like it best chilled overnight, and if you need to moisten up the salad a bit you can always add a splash of buttermilk before serving.
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's now in bacon scent iPhone.
