We’re getting close to the unofficial start of summer; this means lazy weekends, picnics, cook-outs, and grilling. You can’t just slap a steak on a plate and be done with it, though, folks. To me, the true art in summer entertaining comes in the form of side dishes to compliment what you just grilled to perfection.
Shoot. Sometimes we make a warm-weather meal of those side dishes instead of standing over a hot stove or grill. In short, it’s time for potato, macaroni, and other pasta salads to re-emerge from the pantry they hid in over the long, cold winter.
I confess that I am not always a fan of pasta salads. I think this is probably because they’re often too pasta heavy for me, and I like mine with a glut of vegetables.
Easy Bacon Broccoli Pasta Salad is my ideal pasta salad. The pasta is balanced perfectly by a generous presence of crunchy, raw, bite-sized broccoli florets.
The two are tossed with coarsely grated Cheddar cheese and a simple, creamy dressing made flavourful by crunchy bacon, mayonnaise, and red onion. As far as pasta salads -or any salads for that matter- go, it’s about as easy as it gets, but MAN does it pack some serious punch in the taste department.
Easy Bacon Broccoli Pasta Salad is the food equivalent of two kids of identical weight on either end of a teeter-totter. It’s not too heavy and it’s not too light. It’s just right.
Conveniently, it gets even better when given a day or two to rest -tightly covered- in the refrigerator, making it an ideal make-ahead component for those busy summer days.
Easy Bacon Broccoli Salad is NOT complicated, nevertheless, there are a couple of things to keep in mind as you’re making it.
Calling all pasta and potato salad fans! I have you covered in abundance for your summer salads! Check out our Salmon Pasta Salad, Potato Salad with Bacon, Spicy Bacon Cheddar Pasta Salad, Dill Pickle Egg Salad, Asian Pasta Salad, Easy Bacon Pea Pasta Salad, Veggie Lover’s Greek Pasta Salad, Loaded Baked Potato Salad, and Bacon Horseradish Potato Salad.
Bacon Broccoli Pasta Salad
You don’t have to break out the calipers and ruler, but shoot for bite-sized, roughly evenly sized pieces of broccoli floret. I like to keep mine no bigger than a quarter. I chop up and save my broccoli stems in a zipper top bag in the freezer for cream of broccoli soup cravings.
Are you wondering which type of bacon to use? This isn’t the time to splash on pricey bacon, unless you have major disposable income.
The inexpensive stuff will work just fine in Easy Bacon Broccoli Pasta Salad. I just recommend cooking it to chewy crisp and not using an over-sweet type (maple or somesuch) as that may compete a bit flavourwise.
Most of the time I finely chop my bacon for Easy Bacon Broccoli Pasta Salad. I like to disperse the bacon flavour throughout every single bite. If you prefer bigger, more recognizable pieces of broccoli, simply crumble it or chop it more roughly.
I highly recommend you grate your own Cheddar cheese on the coarse area of your cheese grater. The pre-grated stuff you can buy in bags is often tossed with anti-clumping powder which keeps it separate in the bag AND in your dish.
Freshly grated Cheddar goes a long way to contributing to the overall creaminess of the finished Easy Bacon Broccoli Pasta Salad. It’s worth the small amount of time it takes.
Since we’re talking Cheddar, I’m sure some of you may want to know whether to go with mild, sharp, or extra-sharp for the Easy Bacon Broccoli Pasta Salad.
The truth is that you should use whichever Cheddar you’d be likely to nibble on as a snack. Our household almost exclusively goes with extra-sharp, so that’s what I used and I felt it held its own nicely against the assertiveness of bacon and raw broccoli. If mild or sharp is more to your liking, though, use it by all means.
Which pasta should you use? I am almost always going to choose ditalini (small rings) for pasta salads because I think they intersperse among the other ingredients more readily than rotini, which seems to be the mainstay of pasta salads.
If ditalini is unavailable where you are, go with elbows. Either way, cook the pasta to al dente because it will soak up some of the mayonnaise as it melds and marries in the refrigerator.
Speaking of the pasta soaking up mayonnaise, you may find that after a day or so in the refrigerator, the salad has become quite dry. You can easily remedy this by stirring in a tablespoon or two of mayonnaise along with a splash of pickle juice before serving.
Keep this trick in your back pocket all summer, because it works well for most pasta and potato salads. Never suffer a dry salad again!
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Easy Bacon Broccoli Pasta Salad
Rate RecipeIngredients
- 1 pound ditalini pasta cooked to al dente according to package directions
- 2 broccoli crowns cut into bite sized florets
- 12 ounces to 1 pound package of bacon cooked to chewy-crisp, finely chopped
- 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 small red onion peeled and finely chopped
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Combine all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to meld in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes but up to 3 days before serving. Stir gently before serving.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Reader's Thoughts...
John Nickles Jr says
I made this as written and found it somewhat dry and lacking in flavor. so I modified the second time it as follows:
I used tri color rotini, added 1/2 cup sour cream, 1 1/2 cups mayo, 1 can of regular rotel tomato’s and 3 Tbls powdered ranch dressing and one can sliced black olives
Amber says
Pretty good! I might use more mayonnaise next time.
Rebecca says
Hi Amber- I’m glad you liked it! You can always bump up the mayo if that makes you happy. 🙂
D. Smith says
I make these types of salad often in the summer because my husband does not like cooked broccoli although he will eat it raw in ANYTHING! I love it either way, but these easy broccoli/noodle salads with many different homemade dressings are wonderful with grilled steaks, chops, burgers, whatever. When I use bacon, I always cut it into smaller bits BEFORE I fry it – much easier to do. Fries faster and it’s easier to control the amount of “doneness” you want.
Does anyone know where I can buy ditalini or ring noodles these days?? Our local grocery stores no longer carry these (haven’t for over a year now). A friend gave us a couple of box of the small ring noodles a while back that he bought on amazon (we don’t shop on amazon, no way) so we were grateful to him for sharing and invited him to dinner! WHY aren’t they selling these any longer, anyone know the answer to that? We can’t even order them online, we’ve tried. I sometimes boil macaroni and chop it after it’s cooked, but that’s a real hassle and doesn’t work very well.
Rebecca says
I’d like to suggest Amazon, but you headed me off at that pass 🙂 You can always try online bulk foods stores as well as asking your local grocery store to carry them again. Sometimes promising to buy a whole case will sway them into ordering it. This is the voice of experience talking. HA!
Joann says
This looks delicious! Would halved cherry tomatoes be in this recipe?
Rebecca says
I think that sounds like a lovely addition, Joann! Thank you!
Joanne says
I need a salad for 25. How many does the recipe feed (for a pot luck type setting )?
Deanna says
I just made this pasta salad today…easy and amazing!
Audrey says
I recently made this. Love that it has bacon. Ahhh…bacon. Anyhooo…this is what I did to your salad: I eliminated the pasta and added a cup of defrosted, frozen peas. I also didn’t have enough mayo. I had about a 2/3 cup of the stuff. I made up the difference with a generous dollup of Miracle Whip. It added a delightful amount of sweetness. Thanks for your recipes…really enjoy your site.
bristol plasterers says
this recipe is delicious, thanks for sharing. I’m always looking for new recipes to try 🙂
Simon
Yasmin says
Any suggestions for a mayo substitute in this recipe?
Miranda Taylor says
Always looking for new pasta salad recipes. I feel like this would satisfy everyone in my family!
Shari says
That right there is quintessential summer in a bowl. Yum!
Susan says
I love pasta salads in the summer, I’m happy to just make a meal out of them and love your tip of sprucing it up after a few days. Who would have thought to add the pickle juice? Genius.
Rebecca says
Pickle juice in salads is a family tradition for us 😀 Thanks for calling us genius!
Jeri says
Dill? I used Zesty dill juice..was fantastic! What a great idea, thanks.
Robby says
Interesting variation on an old favorite, I’ve never used pasta in this before. Well worth a test drive. Summer is an ever changing rotation of side dishes while we grill something or have a sandwich on the days it is too hot to grill. I love that the bulk of the work is done early before it gets hot out.
Alice E. says
Ditalini isn’t easy to find here, but I use small shells a lot in pasta salads. I think they work especially well to mix and trap dressing and other chopped ingredients. You might try them sometime.
Brianna says
I literally have a page and a half of recipes links I want to try this summer when the garden is in full swing and all that beautiful produce is out! This one will go on that list. Love cool summer recipes. Thanks for sharing!
Lindsay says
Tip, not step! Haha, I guess no one is immune to typos, huh 😉
Rebecca says
Ohmygosh. You just cracked me right up! Good catch. I meant bacon! I must have been foolishly attempting to multi-task at that point.
Lindsay says
Did you mean bacon in the third step? It says both bacon and broccoli 🙂 Looks so delicious!