This was such a great twist on a salad. I took it to a potluck where there were several salads and this was the only one that people were asking who brought this salad. I used bow tie pasta and it was so cute. I also added cherry tomatoes and that was a great addition.
very good - although I made so many change it hardly resembled the original recipe. I did keep the pasta lettuce croutons and bacon - but I left out the egg and added diced tomatoes and parm/moz cheese. I also used a flavored ranch dressing as I don't love Caesar dressing. One tip for traveling with this dish and avoiding soggy lettuce and croutons is to place the lettuce on top on the pasta mixture and the croutons on top of the lettuce then mix before serving.
I added and took out several ingredients to fit our tastes but the basic idea is excellent! using a good quality caesar dressing makes a huge difference as i learned the hard way. Also if you don't eat it all at once the lettuce quickly becomes wilted and soggy.
I used whole wheat elbow macaroni homemade Caesar dressing double the bacon and only one cup of homemade croutons. I also threw in a good handful of fresh parmesan cheese. We enjoyed this--it's very different for pasta salad but we liked it nonetheless. I'd make this again.
I found this recipe to be boring and rather flavorless when made exactly as written. I searched my kitchen to find something to give it a little kick. I added sliced green olives and diced fresh tomato. That helped. I think adding onions cucumbers green or red pepper celery or anything like that would be better also.
Very good recipe Nicole. A very simple quick meal to make but very filling to eat. I did use two grilled chicken breasts that were leftover from the meal the night before cubing them and adding them in. It makes a lot so if your only feeding a few or are planning on leftovers - you may want to add the lettuce and croutons per bowl/per serving - they're pretty soft by the next day if you mix it all together as shown in the picture.
A nice twist on regular mac salad. I would recommend adding the ceaser dressing right before serving. Do not put it in ahead of time because the salad will wilt. Also try putting the bowl of salad over another bowl with ice in it to keep it fresh and cold.
We loved this salad. I did add parmesan cheese - which to me is a must. The only thing I'd do differently next time is halve the recipe because this makes a lot and though we did eat the leftovers the romaine is a little wilty and the croutons get soft. It will definitely be appearing on our summer menus!
This macaroni salad was excellent! Here are the changes I made: I used tricolor rotini to give it some color and I also added halved cherry tomatoes. I didn't use any lettuce because I didn't have any on hand, and I added an extra slice of chopped bacon. I also used about half the amount of Caesar dressing (creamy, not the vinaigrette). This was so good!
