“What’s for dinner?” is a nightly struggle. Most of the time I’m left to decide. So, when someone speaks up with a suggestion, I’m all in. Especially when it’s an easy request like “BLT’s”.
My son Zane, asked for a BLT. And I had everything to make just that, but the bread. We got a little creative and replaced the bread with pasta, added in a few extra veggies (and eggs), and ended up with the perfect cold salad for a warm summer night. I also love that the pasta salad is hearty enough to be filling on its own.
I started with baking our favorite bacon from Lake Meadow Naturals. My favorite way to cook bacon is in the oven. If you’ve never tried it, I highly recommend. It allows you the time to do other things while it cooks, hands free in the oven, and cleans up so much easier too (no grease splatter all over your stovetop). While the bacon cooked, I got started on hard boiling eggs. I also highly recommended hard-boiling eggs in your instant pot (if you have) for a no fuss, little mess, perfectly cooked hard-boiled egg. A post on that can be found here.
Now that you’ve got your bacon and eggs cooking, it’s time to get the pasta going. I chose to use a tri-color rotini, but you can certainly use any pasta noodle. The pasta is just acting as a base for all the toppings. So have fun choosing your favorite.
Once the pasta is cooked, I like to put it in the refrigerator to get it cold before mixing everything together.
Now time to chop all those veggies. I chose to use the romaine we had on hand from Frog Song Organics along with sweet corn, tomato, and red onion. But I’m sure any lettuce would be just fine. Once you’ve chopped everything, set aside. (I think avocado would also be great in this pasta salad.)
Now it’s time to chop the bacon, peel the eggs, and combine it all together. Grab a large bowl and begin layering. I start with the pasta, then add romaine, corn, onion and tomato. Mix by hand to incorporate all well. Plate and add the hard-boiled eggs, halved, to each plate.
Top with your favorite ranch dressing. Mine is hands down, our locally made buttermilk from Lake Meadows. Its herby and creamy and just so good. Let me know if you what you think!
Enjoy!
BLT Pasta
Equipment
- 1 baking sheet For Cooking Bacon
- 1 Cutting Board Chopping all those veggies
- 1 Instant Pot or Stock Pot Hard-boil Eggs
- 1 Large Bowl To combine all Ingredients
Ingredients
- 1 pkg Lake Meadows Natural Bacon Or 12 oz thick cut bacon
- 1 Large Tomato or one-pint grape tomatoes
- 16 oz pasta I like rotini
- 1 Head Romaine Lettuce
- 1/2 cup red onion or your favorite kind adjust amt to your liking
- 1 corn on the cob corn removed from cob
- 8 eggs, hard boiled
- 1 cup Lake Meadows Naturals Ranch Dressing Or a very good alternative
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 415 deg. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment. Remove bacon from package and lay flat on baking sheet. Bake bacon in preheated oven until cooked to desired crispness (flipping half way through). I cook for about 10 minutes on each side.
- Hard boil at least 8 eggs. I like to use my instant pot for this. If using a 6 qt instant pot, place one cup water in bottom of pot. Then add insert/rack and place 8 eggs on top. Close & seal lid. Set to manual and cook for 5 mins with an 8 min natural release. Remove eggs and run under cold water. Set aside.
- Bring one pot of water to rolling boil, salt water, and add 16 oz package of pasta. Cooking to desired tenderness. Drain water from pasta and set aside in refrigerator.
- Chop all your vegetables: Romaine, Corn (Remove from Cob), Red onion, tomato. Set aside.
- Using a large bowl, add pasta, romaine and chopped vegetables. Mix well. Slice hard boiled eggs in half and add to bowl. Spoon out desired serving and add your favorite ranch dressing.
