King Hawaiian Pasta Salad

By á-25138

Ingredients

• 1 lb pasta, penne, macaroni, or rotini
• 1/2 lb genoa salami, sliced into strips (optional)
• 8 slices cooked, crumbled bacon (optional)
• 1 1/2 bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 white onion, grated
• 1/2 red onion, grated
• 3 stalks green onions. sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or grated
• 2 c. mayonnaise
• 1/4 c. milk
• 1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp. seasoning salt
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. onion powder
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. hot sauce
• 1 c. grated sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1 tsp. salt for pasta water
• campari tomatoes, seeded for garnish

Details

Adapted from creolecontessa.blogspot.com

Preparation

Step 1

Bring a large pasta pot of water to boil. Cover with lid to bring up to boil quickly. Remove lid, add salt, stir, add pasta, stir and cook for 14 minutes stirring occasionally. Do not put lid on pot while pasta cooks.

Heat oven to 400 degrees and cook bacon until crisp about 15 minutes. Remove from pan, drain on paper napkins, chop and set aside.

Rinse vegetables and in a large salad bowl grate white and red onion directly into bowl, you want to capture the onion juice for the salad. Dice green onions, and bell pepper. Add crushed garlic and place in bowl.

Mix spice mixture in a small bowl and set aside.

In another small bowl mix mayonnaise, milk, apple cider vinegar and olive oil. Add 2 teaspoons of spice mixture and 1/2 teaspoon of hot sauce to dressing and mix well, refrigerate until ready to use.

Drain pasta, rinse in cold water and allow pasta to sit for 30 minutes to dry out.

Assemble:

In the large salad bowl with vegetable mixture, add pasta, dressing, cheese, salami, bacon and remaining spice blend, stir well and refrigerate until ready to serve preferably overnight. Stir well before serving.

Garnish with fresh diced tomatoes.

For a vegetarian option, you can omit the bacon, genoa and cheese.

Note: I know the pasta is being over cooked, it's the Hawaiian way for this dish. The pasta is suppose to allegedly swell up. Sorry Italy but this is the way it's done in Hawaii. I would never do this to pasta any other time but for this dish it works.