Pasta salad recipe that’s perfect for any football home-gating party. Loaded with three kinds of meat and dressed with homemade Italian dressing. Your football fans will be satisfied with this meat filled pasta.
Men approved!
It’s coming to be that season…college football season! College football is huge in the south and whether you want to be or not, you will get caught up in the game excitement around you. Trust me! I already see cars and houses starting to turn blue & orange or garnet & gold.
Those are the only color changes that you would see in Florida in the fall. No laughing, but I actually had to look up Seminoles colors and the right name for it. I was not about to get tackled by my friends who are Seminoles fans for accidentally calling garnet “burgundy.” Knowing my friends, I would totally get tacked for that.
Oh, the past game day parties and college football season memories are washing over me as the season approaches. Football parties, tailgating and “homegating,” great food, beer and friends! Those are some fun times. Although, when I worked in a restaurant, those were not fun times at all.
We actually had to make sure to virtually split the restaurant in half, putting fans for different teams on the opposite sides. The worst ones were Gators vs Bulldogs games. Working game days is never fun, I prefer to be at home, throwing the party.
Meat Lover’s Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- ½ lb. dry rotini pasta
- 8 oz. bacon strips uncooked
- 6 oz. diced pepperoni
- 6 oz. diced salami
- 1 cup sweet corn
- ½ cup diced onion
- 8 oz. halved cherry tomatoes
- 2 oz. shaved Parmesan cheese
- Salt to taste
- Dressing:
- ½ cup of olive oil
- 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
- 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tsp. sugar
- ¼ tsp dry thyme
- ½ tsp dry oregano
- 1 tsp dry basil
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook bacon in the oven while you are prepping everything else, about 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Once cooked, crumble bacon to pieces.
- Place ingredients for the dressing in a blender. Pulse a few times and set aside.
- Cook pasta according to the package and set aside to cool.
- Dice your meats, onion and tomatoes.
- In a large bowl, combine pasta, bacon pieces, pepperoni, salami, corn, onion, and tomatoes. Mix well and add a little salt to taste.
- Pour the dressing in the pasta mixture and mix until all combined.
- Carefully fold in shaved Parmesan cheese.
- Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- P.S. this pasta salad tastes great warm, freshly made, too!
Nutrition
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