We had some leftover corn on the cob after Father’s Day and I shaved it off the cob and sautéed it in the renderings left behind from crispy bits of bacon (also tangentially related to Father’s Day), tossed the two with al dente pasta and a bit of cooking water with parmesan, chives and basil and it was really lovely and very summery and, because this is 2016, took a picture of it and posted it on Instagram and promised to share the recipe later and three weeks later, here we are! I am sure everyone was at the edge of their seat. Scheduled 7-hour flight with 4 adults and 5 children to a faraway beach town in the name of vacation? I’m scared but: check! Do everything I can with sweet summer corn while it lasts? Let’s get to work! I have about seven weeks left to catch up, except I know at least five of those will be buried under recipe testing and book edits, which basically means it’s now or never to do all the summer things I haven’t yet.īeach? Check. What did I miss?īecause the first half of this summer was so busy - a manuscript due, a redesign set off into the world, a birthday, and a zillion other bits of happy work/life chaos - I’m in this funny position of looking up for the first time mid-July and realizing that no mysterious person has arrived while I was buried in winter recipe testing and font fine-tunings and filled my freezer with popsicles, put a bowl of heirloom tomatoes on the counter, ready for their caprese closeup and beach? Hadn’t seen it since May. This recipe serves 18-20 cowboys, so tell your guests not to be shy with how much they are loading on their plate.Oh, hi, I am ready for summer now. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight for flavors to mingle.Pour over pasta and mix well until evenly coated.In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce and mix well until smooth.Add cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper and mix well.Combine beef, bacon, corn, black beans, tomatoes, onions, and pasta in large mixing bowl and mix well.Cook bacon extra crispy chop into small pieces. Prepare pasta according to package directions.1 can, 15 oz, black beans drained and rinsed.You probably already have most of these ingredients in your kitchen! I bet you didn’t realize that you could make such a fun dish that could feed so many people with ingredients you already have lying around! Check out the ingredients below! Cowboy Pasta Salad Cowboy Pasta Salad Ingredients:

But you can cook yours however you like it. I try to cook the bacon very crispy because I think it gives the pasta salad a really cool texture. Make sure you run the pasta under cold water afterwards and make sure you get as much grease off the ground beef and bacon as possible.

The recipe itself is pretty easy, just cook the pasta, ground beef and bacon how you normally would. While it could be a great side dish for many occasions, this Cowboy Pasta Salad Recipe could also stand alone just fine as a main dish! I love recipes that can be used for different roles and this recipe for a Cowboy Pasta Salad is exactly that. So it would be great to bring for office pitch-ins or any other gathering where there a lot of hungry mouths to feed. I’m not talking about those little pieces of pepperoni or some cubes of ham, I’m talking about ground beef! Real meat! Oh yeah, and bacon! Because, how can you put the word “cowboy” in a recipe without using bacon? Add some corn, black beans and onions and you are well on your way to a Tex Mex twist on one of our favorite side dishes. To begin with, I’ve never even considered making a potato salad with meat. Oh yeah, and German Potato Salad…… It never occurred to me that you could put a ton of fun ingredients into your potato salad to liven things up a bit! Pasta Salad With Meat? Yes Please! For the longest time, I thought that there were only a couple of different kinds potato salads: the white kind and the yellow kind. It is easy to serve and easy to share and a batch of it usually feed a lot of guests. Pasta salad is a great side dish for any number of occasions, from cookouts to picnics to parties. LOOKING FOR MORE GREAT RECIPES FOR A CROWD? CHECK OUT:

Made with ground beef, bacon, black beans and corn, this hearty recipe could feed a whole army of Cowboys! Take a trip down south with this Cowboy Pasta Salad Recipe.

Pioneer woman macaroni salad with bacon