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BLT Pasta Salad

BLT Pasta Salad

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BLT Pasta SaladFamily Favorites, Pasta, Pork


How can you go wrong with pasta salad with bacon?

Active Time: 20 minutes
Start to Finish: 30 minutes

ingredients

  • 12 oz. cork-screw shaped pasta
  • ½ cup whole milk
  • 12 oz. lean bacon
  • 3 medium ripe tomatoes, cut into chunks
  • 1 Tbs. chopped fresh thyme
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • kosher salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • ½ cup mayonnaise
  • ¼ cup sour cream
  • 4 Tbs. chopped chives
  • 5 heads Bibb lettuce, quartered or
  • 5 cups chopped romaine hearts

directions

Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water as the label directs. Drain and toss with the milk in a large bowl; set aside.

Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Discard all but 3 Tbs. drippings from the pan. Add the tomatoes, thyme and garlic to the pan and toss until warmed through; season with salt and pepper. Crumble the bacon into bite-sized pieces; set aside ¼ cup for garnish. Toss the remaining bacon and the tomato mixture with the pasta.

Mix the mayonnaise, sour cream and 3 Tbs. chives with the pasta until evenly combined. Season with salt and pepper. Add the lettuce; toss again to coat. Garnish with the reserved bacon and the remaining 1 Tbs. chives. Serve at room temperature.

Notes

You can use chopped scallion greens instead of the chives.

As always, I peel and seed the tomatoes before warming them. You can, of course, skip that step.

Nutritional Information, per serving

Calories: 480; Fat: 28 g (Saturated Fat: 10 g; Monounsaturated Fat: 15 g; Polyunsaturated Fat: 9 g); Protein: 22 g; Carbs: 37 g; Fiber: 3 g; Cholesterol: 63 m; Iron: ; Sodium: 1057; Calcium: .

Note: Nutritional information is approximate.

This recipe appears in the following parties:


Picnic Perfect
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recipe type

Side Dishes

source

Food Network Magazine

yield

8

difficulty

2222

tips

Storing tomatoesStoring tomatoes
Never store a tomato in the refrigerator. If you slice a tomato and don't use all of it, place the tomato upside down on a plate. Store the plate on the counter for up to 1 day.

Peeling a tomatoPeeling a tomato
To peel a tomato, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut an "X" in the bottom of the tomato, and place it in the boiling water for 30-60 seconds. If the tomato is not really ripe, it may take longer-- watch for the skin around the X to start to come loose. Place the tomato in a bowl of ice water, leave for about a minute, then remove. The skin should peel right off. If you only have a few tomatoes to peel, it's probably easier to simply use a vegetable peeler.

De-seeding a tomatoDe-seeding a tomato
To de-seed a tomato, cut it in half crosswise (lengthwise if you are using a plum tomato.) Holding the tomato over the sink or the garbage, scoop out the seeds in each of the cavities with your little finger.

Kosher v. table salt
We always use kosher salt in our cooking because its crystals dissolve better in water than ordinary table salt. However, kosher and table salt are not equivalent when you are measuring amounts for a recipe. To further confuse matters, different types of kosher salt measure differently. If a recipe calls for table salt (or just salt), and the amounts are relatively small (e.g., one teaspoon), we simply use the amount called for in the recipe. You can always add a bit more salt to taste. If however, the recipe calls for larger amounts of salt, as would be the case, for example, in a brine, then you should convert the amount called for. Most sources cite 2 types of kosher salt as being widely available: Morton (which is what we use) and Diamond Crystal (which none of us have ever been able to find.) In any case, to convert the amount of table salt to Morton Kosher Salt, multiply the table salt by 1.5; to convert to Diamond Crystal, multiply by 2.

Just another example of why algebra really is im