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Monday, March 26, 2012

BLT Pasta Salad - Pasta Week #1

Recipe tried out in Sept 2011

Love this salad.

Well, who doesn’t love BLT
Bacon--- Lettuce---Tomatoes.
A wonderful combination, usually in sandwiches.


But this time, it came in the form of pasta. Say bye bye to the bread and hello to spirals.
Instead of using this as a side dish or a starter, I made this for dinner and we loved it.


When I bought the pasta in Tesco, I had no idea what to do with it yet. I lt was spiral but yet hollow, like a twisted macaroni. And that night itself, while surfing on the internet, I came across this recipe and hahahah! Was the recipe God-sent or what?




BLT Pasta Salad
Recipe adapted with modifications from : Food Network
Serves : 3-4 depending on portion size.

250gm any spiral/corkscrew pastas (I used Tesco’s Riccioli, which was the exact shape in the source)
½ cup milk
200gm bacon (I used bacon chips), sliced small
200gm cherry tomatoes, halved
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 head of cos lettuce or 5 heads of baby romaine, torn to small pieces (basically Romaine and cos lettuce is the same thing, but local supermarkets tend to label the large ones as cos lettuce and the small ones as romaine)
100gm mayonnaise
70gm natural set plain yogurt (I used Nestle Natural, Dutch Lady won’t taste as creamy here)
4 Tbsp chopped spring onions
Salt and black pepper

1. Cook the pasta as per instructions on packaging until al dente. Drain and mix with milk. Set aside. (toss it from time to time to distribute the milk)
2. Fry bacon in pan (no oil) until crispy and the bacon oil oozes out. Tilt pan and let the oil drain off the bacon. Dish up bacon. Set aside.
3. Pour away most of the oil in pan, leaving behind about 2-3 Tbsp of it. On medium heat, saute garlic until fragrant and and pour in the halved cherry tomatoes. Just spread in pan but don’t toss them. Let it cook until the garlic is golden. Tilt pan, push tomatoes to the higher side and let the oil collect at the lower side. Dish up tomatoes and as much garlic as you can. Set aside. (the tomatoes should not be mushy, but just cooked)
4. Prepare dressing. Mix mayonnaise, yogurt and 3 tbsp of the spring onions together. Season with 1/3 tsp salt and black pepper.
5. Just before serving, mix everything together and sprinkle the final 1 tbsp of spring onion as garnish.

25 comments:

  1. Great summer time dish. I love a BLT sandwich so I'll have to try this.

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  2. Bo,
    Feel free to make more dressing if you like it that way. I like mine light ;)

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  3. wow!! delicious!!
    wendy,
    this one i must try.. oh ya, bacon you mention also brought from tesco??

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  4. Janetan,
    anywhere that sells bacon. jusco, tesco, eurodeli....
    but mine is from jusco

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  5. Mayonaise....emm I think my girl will like it. Simple recipe. Thks

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  6. After all the sweet and wonderful rolls, here comes pasta salad, to balance it up....hehehe
    Wonderful recipe :)

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  7. Jes,
    My elder girl loved this.
    Yeah, pretty simple and quick to whip up



    Yummylittlecooks,
    hehehe... Usually I do one week sweet one week savoury :)

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  8. at first i thought your paste comes with siput :)then i read i realised it's the spiral pasta.Creamy pasta i'm ok, i can take and the best is that we can always adjust the creaminess and taste of dressing to how we like it.

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  9. Ah.....I fall in love with it just by looking at the photos. Very healthy pasta salad!

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  10. A nice twist to the norm, I like it! I love BLT with anything...yums. :)

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  11. Oh, this looks so yummy I wanna eat it now!

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  12. Ooooh, who doesn't like BLTs....bacon always makes everything taste better.

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  13. Delicious and healthy....mmmmm got bacon in side, yum yum

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  14. lena,
    Mana mau cari siput??
    My garden dun have, LOL.
    Yeah, can adjust and make per dish, customize :)


    Little Inbox,
    The bacon blinded you, LOL.


    Bee,
    Haha, BLT seems to be fav of many


    daydreamer,
    haha... take one plate then


    Sharon,
    Oh yes, it really does, especially when it's crispy.



    Pete,
    Bacon makes it healthier, right? LOL.

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  15. I like the pasta shape. Wish i can find it here.

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  16. Beautiful and tasty pasta...love the ingredients ins. And what an interesting shape this pasta has :)
    Hope you are having a wonderful week!

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  17. No one could resist your bowl of beautiful pasta .

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  18. love this BLT who doesn't haha. I bought my bacon chips from Jusco too;) I don't mind this for my breakfast ! Looks delish!

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  19. wah... nice nice. more healthy since not using cream :) i think. how nice if my girl eat this :)

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  20. Cass,
    Buy it on ur next trip back, but since this is a product of UK Tesco, it may not be available all the time here.


    Juliana,
    thanks, u have a great one too


    Sonia,
    Haha, can u ?


    Elin,
    Can can.... sure can.


    Jamie,
    There's no cream, but don't forget there is Mayo. Mayo isn't any healthier than cream. Actually is higher in fat %.
    If you want to be really healthy, use yogurt only.

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  21. Looks really delicious! Creamy pasta is my daughter's fav, while tomato-based is my son's fav, as for me, I like both varieties!

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  22. Oh Wendy ! Your photography skill is getting better and better each day! I used to check out your blog when I need a recipe, now I drop by just for the fun of reading your writing and drool over the photos ! Keep cooking and keep blogging, please! =]

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  23. Love this pasta salad! I didn't use mayo, but replaced with all yogurt.

    Thanks for your inspiration.

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  24. kitchen flavours,
    I like both too ;)


    Catherine,
    Thanks, and do drop by more often :)


    Ivy,
    Thanks for the feedback, yeah, actually full yogurt is much much healthier.

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  25. My family love eating the classic BLT. Teaming it with pasta is such a brilliant idea.

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