Bowtie Pasta Salad

EDITOR’S NOTE: Taylor missed her deadline for publishing this recipe last Friday. It is a great salad and a worthy post so we are releasing this blog now. – Ed

Do you have fabulous family recipes that have a story to them? My favorite pasta salad has a wonderful story behind it and I thought that since I will be sharing this wonderful recipe, I should tell the story that goes along with it too! Come join me a fun mini-saga and a delicious pasta salad.When I was a little girl, I remember going to visit my father at work with my mother and sister. We would all go eat lunch together at a small sports deli just around the corner. We would order sandwiches and salad. They had a very popular pasta salad that has a creamy, ranch-flavored dressing. It was my mother’s favorite! (Mine too!)

Several years later when we were going to move several hundred miles away, my mother asked the owner for the recipe. He had scratched his head and said, “I wish I could give you one but I don’t really measure. It is a pinch of this, a dash of that and that looks about right.” I remember them standing at the counter for some time talking about the process while my sister and I waited restlessly. It took a little time to refine the flavor of the pasta salad so it was nearly identical to that wonderful little sports deli. Memories taste so wonderful!

After much trial and error my mother finally figured a suitable recipe and she wrote it down so it can be shared with friends, families and neighbors. So please come join me for a family favorite. I am sure you will find it will be one of the first things to go at potlucks and BBQs, so enjoy!

Bowtie Pasta Salad

1 packet dry Ranch Dressing Mix
1 cup Buttermilk
1 cup Mayonnaise
1/4 cup Miracle Whip
1 Tbsp Vinegar
1 tsp dry Ranch Dressing Mix
1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning Herb Blend
1 tsp Coarse Black Pepper

Combine all ingredients. Refrigerate until needed later.

16 oz dry bow tie pasta

Cook in boiling water according to directions. Cook to soft stage but do not overcook. Al dente cooked pasta is too firm and will soak up all the sauce. Cook slightly longer, no more than 1 more minute. Drain pasta. Rinse with cold water to cool and stop the cooking process.

Once pasta is cool add:
1/3 cup Tomato, Diced, reserve a few for garnish on top
1/3 cup Cucumber, Diced, reserve a few for garnish on top
Previously prepared Ranch sauce
Dill Weed

Stir sauce and pasta to coat all pasta. Sprinkle dill weed over top. Serve or refrigerate to well chilled. Fills 9X13 baking pan.

Finished Bowtie Pasta Salad

Cooked Pasta

Preparing Sauce

Mixing Pasts Sauce and Vegetable together

Finished Bowel of Pasta Salad. Yum!