Chipotle-bacon pasta salad

[T.G]

Yesterday at the herf I had a few requests for this recipe and preparation notes.

As a recipe goes, it's nothing outrageous, just a modification of the typical boring pasta salad, and prepared slightly differently.



Ingredients:
• 1 pound dried bow-tie pasta
• 1 pound uncooked bacon or 4-5 oz pre-cooked bacon
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• 2 tsp chipotle power
• 1/16 tsp xanthan gum (optional)
• 4oz green olives w/ pimento, sliced ("salad olives")
• 3-4oz black olives, sliced
• 4-5 long green onions, sliced
• 4oz sweet pickled bananna peppers, chopped coarse (use peperoncini if you want some zing)
• 4oz canned or marinaded mushrooms, sliced
• 0.5-1oz sun dried tomatoes, re-hydrated, chopped coarse


Preparation:
The day before:
• Say the phrase "Bacon in every bite". Now repeat this mantra 10 times, more softly each time.
• Cook the bacon until chewy, don't burn it, burnt carbon on the bacon will make the salad taste like a briquette.
The oven is probably the easiest way to achieve this. Preheat oven to 400F. Cover a 1/4 sheet pan (cookie sheet)in foil, lay the bacon stips out, cook for about 15-20 minutes, just keep an eye on it for the last 5 minutes so that it doesn't burn or crisp up too much.
Drain, crumble, set aside.
You can also skip the oven mess and use pre-cooked bacon. Since bacon loses about 60-75% of it's weight in cooking, one or two packages of pre-cooked will be necessary to get 4-5oz.

• In a large bowl, combine the mayonnaise, orange juice and chipotle powder. Begin mixing with a power hand mixer.
If you want it hotter, a dash of cayenne pepper or a bit more chipotle can be used. It will get a bit hotter as it rests overnight, so don't over do it.
Once fully combined, begin slowly sprinkling the xanthan gum in while mixing on high speed. Once thickened, you can stop mixing.
Fold in the crumbled bacon. Transfer to a container, cover and refrigerate overnight.
You can do this the day of service, but the bacon and chipotle won't have time to infuse the dressing. Rather than tasting like a bacon dressing, it'll taste like the individual ingredients.

Day before or day of serving:
• Cook pasta according to the package instructions, adding a bit of salt and about a tablespoon of oil to the water, set aside to cool.
If cooking day before, once cooled, place in large bowl or container and refrigerate overnight.
I prefer cooking the day before and refrigerating as it makes for a much firmer pasta.

• Drain olives, mushrooms, peppers, sun dried tomatoes. Chop or slice up whatever vegetables need cutting and refrigerate until needed.

A few hours before serving:
• If you refrigerated the pasta over night, it'll be a big clump, break it up with your hands. The oil carried over from the cooking water will make this easy.
• Mix all vegetable ingredients with the pasta, add the dressing and toss to coat.

Serve with a sign that has a happy face smiley on it.

[Fordman4ever]

Sounds delish

[pnoon]

Originally Posted by Fordman4ever

Sounds delish

I had some yesterday at the Barn Herf.

It is friggin' good.

[Adriftpanda]

the chipotle one was yummy. good job andy.