Is it pasta salad or caesar salad?! Yes, it is :) Feel free to play with all the quantities, adjusting to taste and for how many people you're feeding.
Ingredients
1-2 cups uncooked pasta (depends how many you're feeding - we like rotini or farfalle/bowties and 2 cups feeds 4 as a main dish, 8-10 as a side dish)
8 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
1 tsp olive oil
⅓ cup grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup cherry tomatoes, halved (optional)
1 head romaine lettuce, chopped and washed
Caesar dressing
Black pepper
Instructions
Cook bacon until fairly crisp. Remove bacon to paper-towel lined plate but KEEP the grease.
Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions. When pasta is ready, drain thoroughly. Transfer to large serving bowl and toss with the warm bacon grease and 1 tsp olive oil. (This adds tons of flavour and also helps keep the pasta from clumping together). Add in about ⅓ cup of Caesar dressing and the chopped or crumbled bacon and mix well, then add Parmesan cheese and tomatoes, if using, and toss gently.
At this point, you can let it cool before covering with plastic wrap and refrigerating until serving time, at which point you add the lettuce and more Caesar dressing and pepper to taste.
To serve immediately (pasta will be warm, but that's ok), toss in lettuce and additional dressing and season to taste with pepper.
Notes
To make this an even more filling meal, add shredded cooked chicken along with the bacon.
Recipe by Hidden Ponies at https://hiddenponies.com/2016/09/bacon-caesar-pasta-salad/