Ranch Pasta Salad

Ranch dressing holds a specific place in my heart, and that place is a pizza parlor salad bar. I took all of my favorite salad bar toppings, swapped noodles for the iceberg, and tossed it all with creamy ranch. It’s a pasta salad that’s packed with veggies and texture, but still delivers classic macaroni salad vibes.

• Ranch dressing: A completely from-scratch ranch dressing is tasty, but the classic packet of powder stirred into a combination of mayo and sour cream delivers that nostalgic flavor you can’t quite replicate on your own. Keeping the dressing thicker like a dip prevents things from getting too soggy, while a good dose of fresh herbs and freshly cracked black pepper punches things up a bit.
• Pasta: Any short, chunky shape works here. You want to be able to spear it with the veggies and other mix-ins. 
• Broccoli: Quickly blanch florets with the pasta the last minute of cooking to take the raw taste out while still retaining their crunch.
• Bacon: What’s a salad bar salad without bacon bits?
• Tomatoes: Salting the diced tomatoes before adding them to the salad pulls out lots of liquid, which gives you extra tomato-y flavors, plus season tomato juices that thin the dressing just enough without making it watery.
• Grated carrots: Pre-bought grated carrots are thicker and have more crunch than hand-grated, but grating carrots on the large holes of a box grater works well, too.
• Radishes: When thinly sliced, they provide great texture and bite.
• Black olives: Briny, salty black olives are a classic pizza-parlor flavor to me.
• Cheddar cheese: Sharp cheddar provides the best flavor.
• Sunflower seeds: They lend salty crunch and are one of my favorite salad toppings.

Yes. Rinsing the pasta with cold water stops the cooking to prevent soggy noodles, and it also rids the pasta of extra starch. You want that starch with hot pasta, but rinsing it off for a cold salad prevents the noodles from sticking together.

After draining and rinsing, it’s important to get the noodles as dry as possible. You can do this by letting the pasta drain in the colander for a full five minutes, tossing every minute or so. If you have a large salad spinner, this is a great time to use it to get rid of the extra water. You might not be eating a green salad, but the same concept applies: The less water clinging to your lettuce or pasta, the less your dressing gets diluted, both in texture and flavor.

Ranch pasta salad can be made ahead, but it will thicken up as it sits. (Although it never gets too gloppy!) You can definitely stir it together a few hours ahead of time and refrigerate it until ready to eat. You can also break the prep into steps. Make the dressing a couple of days ahead, boil the pasta and cut up the vegetables up to a day before, and mix everything together before serving.