Florida, the sunshine
state, and with sunshine comes BBQ’s and with BBQ’s comes unlimited opportunities to show off your side dish making skills. Often times intimidating because BBQ’s are usually a large gathering where it’s not just your closest friends and family tasting your creations but also possible strangers! I can feel the pressure through my fingers just describing this scenario! However, I am here to help, in fact I am here to not only have you showing up with something edible but I’m here to show you how to make something people will be begging for you to bring to every gathering (get ready to be invited to a lot more parties)! I absolutely LOVE BBQ’s because that means I get to feed lots of people and nothing brings me more happiness than seeing people eat my food and go back for thirds. It’s a feeling that is hard to explain but I don’t get that feeling from anything else I do in life so why not do it fora living right?!
Moving on, one dish you can’t go wrong bringing to any BBQ is pasta salad. Now I’m not talking about that mayonnaise soaked, crunchy carrot pieces, with a little b
it of pepper salad that your local grocery stores insist on carrying. I’m talking about a full bodied, salty, sweet, savory, refreshing, zesty, BLT pasta salad. Thanks to the help of bottled store bought dressing this dish doesn’t require a laundry list of ingredients to gather as well as it only takes as long as boiling water and cooking bacon (both very quick tasks if you were wondering). Quick, easy, delicious, and it won’t completely clog your arteries like the buffalo chicken dip Karen always brings.
Ingredients:
1/2 package of bacon
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 lbs. Cork screw pasta (penne and bow tie will also work great)
4 cups of chopped romaine lettuce
1/4 cup scallions, sliced
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1 tsp salt and pepper (to taste)
1 tbs. Ranch seasoning
1 cup Zesty Italian dressing
Directions:
- Cook pasta according to package (I usually cook pasta aldente but since it will be served cold usually cook all the way through)
- Meanwhile, cook bacon, once cool enough roughly chop
- Cut cherry tomatoes in half
- Add all ingredients toss with Italian dressing.
- Literally that’s it, it’s too easy.