This ONE is fun, mostly because you can change up some of the ingredients that you or your family will love. I get that not everyone likes goat cheese or tomatoes…maybe not a huge fan of avocado? No problem! If you stick with the basics of this pasta salad, you can easily add or take away a few things. BUT for my version of this pasta salad, I include bacon, goat cheese, spinach, tomatoes, roasted corn, avocado and just the right amount of ranch dressing. What I refer to as the “base” would be the bowtie pasta, bacon, roasted corn, spinach and ranch dressing as the other ingredients are totally interchangeable or you can eliminate them completely. I will also add hardboiled eggs to this one which also goes really well with the other ingredients. It is super easy and will make you a hit at any upcoming spring/summer Texas BBQ.
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Ingredients
16 ounces bowtie pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 1/2 cups fresh spinach
6-8 ounces crumbled goat cheese
8 strips of bacon
2 15 ounce cans of corn (drained)
cherry tomatoes (cut in half)
2 avocados (diced)
3/4 cup of ranch dressing
ranch seasoning
salt & pepper to taste
4-6 hardboiled eggs (optional)
Directions
- In salted water, boil & cook the bowtie pasta following the directions on the package to al dente. Drain. Toss the pasta with olive oil and set aside.
- In a skillet, cook the strips of bacon. Once cooked, set aside. Once cooled, go ahead and break up the bacon into pieces
- With the bacon grease in the skillet, pan roast the corn, about 10-15 minutes on medium-high heat. If you keep it on high, be sure you’re watching it closely as to not burn the corn.
- Cut the cherry tomatoes into halves and dice up the avocado.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the pasta, bacon, corn, spinach, tomatoes, ranch dressing, ranch seasoning, salt and pepper. Add the diced hardboiled eggs if you choose to include them. I intentionally did not indicate how much ranch seasoning, salt and pepper to use as I think that’s up to you. It is always good to sample as you go. Start small on the seasoning and then add. It’s always easier to add than to remove!
- Once the pasta is nice and mixed, add the avocados on top.
As I mentioned, you can eliminate or add ingredients to this one! If you don’t like goat cheese, I think feta would also work well with this pasta salad. Not a tomato fan? No problem! Don’t add them. I mentioned waiting to add the avocado at the end and not mixed in. I recommend this because if you’re not going to serve all the pasta salad at once, you don’t want the avocados to get brown or mushy. You can also just have avocado on the side and let folks add it if they want. I definitely feel like the avocado adds a lot of flavor to this recipe so I highly recommend using it! If you do end up making this recipe and changing it up a little, let me know! I’m always looking for ways to improve or change things up!
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