Bacon ranch pasta salad is easy to throw together! Use bottled rance or homemade for a quick side dish that's perfect for any summer meal.
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With summertime finally, here, cold salad recipes are becoming more and more abundant and searched for. Finding a delicious pasta salad that is not only quick and easy but also budget friendly is at the top of a lot of people’s to find lists.
If you happen to be looking for an amazing and easy pasta salad recipe, look no further because this ranch pasta salad is by far the best one to please all your dinner party guests and family members.
Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad
The name says it all. It can please everyone from the most carnivorous eaters to the more simple taste buds. With a hearty helping of crispy and juicy bacon, you can bet it’d be the first bowl empty at a family gathering or potluck.
The pasta salad dressing is as simple as a few measuring cups of your favorite ranch salad dressing. While that may not sound as impressive as mixing together something using ingredients from your fridge or pantry when used in conjunction with the ingredients in this pasta salad it helps to give a different flavor tone to the dish. You can even make your own homemade ranch dressing if you need to feel like you actually cooked something from scratch.
How to Make Ranch Pasta Salad
Ranch pasta salad is normally a very easy dish to make, and this recipe is right up there with the simplest of ones. Simply precook your rotini pasta noodles in hot water until they are ready, usually about 15 minutes. Then drain and rinse in cold water.
Rinsing the noodles in cold water not only helps to stop the cooking process so that you don’t get mushy noodles, but it also helps to wash off some of the starches that would otherwise stick your noodles together in a large clump. It also aids you in letting you mix together a cold pasta salad from the start so you don’t have to risk any burns from the hot heat of freshly cooked pasta.
After your noodles have been rinsed under cold water, shake off some of the excess water from the colander. Then pour your noodles into a bowl to be mixed with the other bacon ranch pasta salad ingredients.
Mixing together the noodles, ranch dressing, vegetables, and chopped bacon will give you an amazingly creamy pasta salad ready for any table or gathering. Just make sure you made enough to share!
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Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound garden rotini (cooked)
- 1 cup black olives (quartered)
- 1 cup bacon (cooked, chopped)
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes (quartered, see note)
- 2 cups ranch dressing (see note)
Instructions
- Combine cooked pasta, olives, bacon, and tomatoes.
- Toss with 1 cup of the ranch dressing.
- Gradually add the rest of the ranch dressing, stopping when everything is coated to your preference.
Kim
Yum! I love pasta salad, and this was a new take on my usual. Couldn't be simpler and totally delicious!
Alli
easy and delicious!