This is a wonderful Bacon and and Macaroni Salad (otherwise known as Not Your Mama’s Macaroni Salad) that is perfect for a barbecue.
Bacon and Macaroni Salad
I’m absolutely convinced that bacon makes everything taste better. Everything.
It starts innocently enough with little pasta elbows. My Mom never used elbows for her macaroni salad. She always went with the little short tube ditalini type.
Add a little bit of finely chopped celery. Just a little. You want the crunch and the flavor, but you don’t want it to overwhelm the salad with chunky celery. Mom despised celery, so I’m quite sure she would have never added the stuff to her macaroni salad.
I’m not a huge fan of raw onion and my family isn’t either… but when you soak red onion in cold water for a few minutes and then give it a rinse, it loses that super sharp onion taste and it’ll just give your salad a little more crunch and flavor and color. Mom definitely didn’t like onion in her macaroni salad either!
Add a little bit of chopped parsley too. I don’t think Mom used this either.
Here’s the yummy part- add TOMATO. Good, red, vine-ripened tomato if you can find it. Mom never did this (but she should have).
Mix it all up in a bowl.
Add a simple mayonnaise based dressing. If you’re not a fan, mix it with an Italian Dressing instead. Both ways = good in this salad.
All mixed up and done, right? Nope… not done. Although it was good with just these basic ingredients, I found that it was missing just a little something…
…bacon! With added cooked and crumbled bacon (the smoked hickory kind is what I used here), this macaroni salad is taken to a whole new level.
Mom never made hers with bacon either (but she should have). Although I’m pretty sure that Mom would most definitely have not likedmthe components of my macaroni salad, my family thought it was a big hit. While I loved the macaroni salad of my youth (and still do!), this one is my grown-up version. Tomato and the bacon takes plain old macaroni salad to a whole new level. And might I say that this salad pairs well with barbecued ribs and corn on the cob? Pretty much your perfect summer evening meal.
Bacon and Macaroni Salad
Ingredients
- 1 cup dry elbow macaroni, cooked, rinsed and drained
- ⅓ cup diced celery
- ¼ cup minced red onion, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes, then drained
- 1 tablespoon minced flat leaf parsley
- ½ cup diced vine ripened tomatoes
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise
- 3 tablespoons sour cream
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon dry mustard
- ½ teaspoon granulated white sugar
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the macaroni, celery, onion, parsley, and tomato.
- In a small bowl, prepare the dressing, mixing mayo, mustard, sugar, vinegar, sour cream and salt.
- Add dressing to the pasta mixture and stir to combine. Season with freshly ground black pepper, to taste. Sprinkle crumbled bacon on top.
Notes
- If you don't care for a mayo-based macaroni salad, feel free to substitute an Italian dressing for the mayo dressing.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I think I have to try this! Well, without the mayo and meat anyway (I’m a vegetarian). Can I use sour cream instead of mayo?
Sure! Or mix yogurt and sour cream…
This looks yummy, i love macaroni salad and its easy to make.
Yumm! Just made this and it is delicious!!
Lori,
macaroni salad is a staple at our house, but I NEVER thought about adding BACON to it! DIVINE!!!
Thanks for such a wonderful post!
This looks like an amazing macaroni salad- I’ll bet the bacon makes it!
Awesome! A must try.
Although I can’t use the bacon, I can always sub for turkey bacon! This looks absolutely incredible…I think my family would fall in love with this! I’m totally Pinteresting this! 🙂
I made this last night… DELICIOUS! Onion tip worked GREAT. Forgot to buy parsley, still tasted good. I wanted a cauldron so I doubled the macaroni & the dressing and kept the other ingredient amounts the same. Still worked out very well. I might be a rebel next time and add small cubes of cheddar cheese, too. My hubby, who is more a fan of viniagrette dressings, took THREE helpings of this at dinner. If it were store-bought mac salad, he’d eat one small helping at the most. Thanks for another winner!
My mother never put bacon in hers, but after reading this, I’m adding it to the ingredient list, which is old and faded. 🙂
(Her favorite salad was a pickled beet salad. My kids hated it when I made it for them.)
Ha Ha! Your right. you know your Mom well. I would toss out the celery, onion, and parsley and keep the macaroni, bacon and tomatoes. The dressing however, sounds simply yummy just as it is!
LOVE