Ham & Cheese Pasta Salad
I was making another dish and wanted to make a pasta salad as a side and to make room in the fridge as well, glad I made this, it is excellent! Link to the shortcut is listed in the Recipe Notes section.
Ingredients
- 250 grams dry small pasta, small shells, spirals, or macaroni, (8 oz)
- 250 grams ham, cubed, (8 oz)
- 200 grams bacon, chopped, fried crispy, cooled, (7 oz)
- 125 grams Swiss cheese, cubed, (4 oz)
- 125 grams Cheddar cheese, cubed, (4 oz)
- 5 small dill pickles, sliced, Shortcut
- mayo, as needed
- black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in a pot of boiling salted water, to just tender, this way when it cools, it will be a perfect tender pasta for a cold salad. Drain well and place in a large bowl.
- While the pasta is cooking, go ahead and cube the cheese, ham, and cook the bacon. Here I used only Gouda cheese.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl, except the mayo and black pepper, and gently mix together.
- Start adding mayo, couple of large spoonfuls and mix, add more mayo as needed to just coat everything, not dripping with mayo. Season to taste with black pepper. Refrigerate for several hours before serving. Serve as a side or as a main dish.
Notes
The ham will cost 135 Baht, the bacon 130 Baht, Swiss cheese is half a 250 gram block so that is 90 Baht, and the Cheddar cheese is half a 250 gram block to that is 90 Baht. For 10 servings, this is about $1.30 per serving, over all, not bad.
Shortcut: Fridge Dill Pickles.
Variant: 1. In place of Swiss use Gouda or use all Gouda.