I love bacon. Lettuce and tomatoes are good too. And so is pesto. And I love pasta. I know, it gets a bad rap and everyone is supposed to eat “zoodles” or quinoa noodles and what not but I’m not quite ready (doubt I’ll ever be) to ditch pasta completely.
I bought a basil plant while grocery shopping a couple weeks ago and it has been thriving so I knew I had to make pesto and figured I’d use in for an epic creation for last night’s dinner.
Enter my newest creation, Pesto BLT Pasta Salad.
BLT Pasta Salad
Serves 4-6 depending on if you eat it as a side dish or a main dish
Ingredients:
- 1/2 lb. (half of a box) of pasta, try using a fun shape because well, its fun!
- 2 T pesto, store bought or make your own like I did*
- 1/2 lb. sliced bacon, cooked until crisp, chopped
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 3-4 cups of crispy lettuce, chopped (I used romaine because its what I had, arugula would have been awesome in this too)
Directions:
- Cook pasta to your desired doneness, drain and let cool slightly.
- Meanwhile, make your pesto (or get it out of the fridge).
- Stir pesto into pasta until coated.
- Add bacon, tomatoes, and lettuce to the pasta mixture and toss.
- Serve immediately or refrigerate for 30 minutes and serve chilled.
*My pesto recipe – 1 1/2 cups basil, 3 T pine nuts, 3 T olive oil, 1-2 cloves of garlic (depending on size and how much you like garlic), 1/4 t course sea salt. Add to processor and process until smooth. I don’t like cheese so I do not add parmesan to y pesto. Fell free to add to your if you want. Just take an educated guess on how much. This makes roughly 3-4 T of pesto which is more than you need for the recipe but there’s nothing wrong with left over pesto. Use it to top salads or spread on sandwiches.
I hope you guys like it as much as SL and I did. I bet this would be delicious over a bed of baby spinach or kale for a healthy(ish) quick lunch. Note: Bacon becomes healthy(ish) when mixed with lettuce and tomatoes in my book 🙂
Emily's Full Plate 