Although difficult to find, mascarpone cheese is fantastic. With this easy recipe, you can produce mascarpone at home. It isn’t entirely real (true recipes call for a bacterial culture), but it also doesn’t call for any difficult-to-find components.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 30 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 8 ounces corkscrew-shaped pasta
- ¾ cup Italian-style salad dressing
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 2 cups chopped, cooked rotisserie chicken
- 12 slices crispy cooked bacon, crumbled
- 8 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup cubed Muenster cheese
- 1 cup chopped celery
- 1 cup chopped green bell pepper
- 1 avocado – peeled, pitted, and chopped
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients.
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- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook pasta in the boiling water, stirring occasionally, until tender yet firm to the bite, about 10 to12 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water.
- Whisk Italian-style dressing and mayonnaise together in a large bowl.
- Dotdash Meredith Food Studios
- Stir in pasta, chicken, bacon, tomatoes, cheese, celery, green bell pepper, and avocado until evenly coated.
- Dotdash Meredith Food Studios
- Enjoy!
- DOTDASH MEREDITH FOOD STUDIOS
- Substitute Monterey Jack cheese for the Muenster, if desired.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 486 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 37 g |
| Cholesterol | 48 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 19 g |
| Saturated Fat | 8 g |
| Sodium | 723 mg |
| Sugars | 5 g |
| Fat | 30 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This is, hands down, my favorite pasta salad! I exclude the avocado (texture issue) and it’s still great!!
Delish! I ‘borrowed’ another reviewer’s tip and substituted the muenster cheese with feta. Instead of 8 oz., I just used the entire 12 oz. box of pasta. Will make it again!
Delicious! Great summer meal. I made a few changes to use what I had on hand. I used Dubliner cheese instead of Munster, half the bacon and chopped tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes. Next time, I will use twice as many tomatoes.
At first I was not sure how the mayo and dressing would be – it is delicious.
I liked this recipe, it was fast and delicious. I appreciated something so simple to throw together!
Very good and easy and comes together quickly. Next time I would add some Italian seasoning and freshly ground pepper to the salad, but it was still good. I didn’t have any avocado so did not add that and it was still good. I used turkey bacon.
I make a few alterations to the original recipe to suit but I have to make such a large batch as the kids love it. So I double up on ingredients, put extra sauce and pasta in and swap the cheese to one they like.
amazing
So simple and delicious!
This was so awesome the first day I made it! I figured it would need to sit in the fridge overnight to actually be good, so can’t imagine how good it will be tomorrow! I used All recipes Absolutely Fabulous Greek House Dressing instead of bottled, which I always keep on hand. I didn’t have muenster cheese so used a combination of hard cheeses I had in the fridge. I didn’t have any celery, green pepper or avocado, so I used orange pepper, red onion and some leftover spinach. This recipe would go great with whatever you have in your fridge. I was thinking that artichoke hearts and cucumber might work well too. I’m definitely keeping this recipe in my regular rotation. It’s that good! Thanks, Lane J!
This is be best pasta salad ever! It makes a large bowl full and when my husband saw it he scoffed “Well, we’ll be throwing half of that out!”. Surprise! 3 days later, we were fighting over the last tiny bowl and he reminded me to get the ingredients to make more when I went to the store the next day. I think that I will double the dressing because it got a little dry after the first day but otherwise, awesome as is!
omgoodness amazing.
This was really simple, and the entire family loved it. I gussied it up a bit with a few extra veggies since I didn’t have an Avocado handy. We like chicken, so I added a bit more than called for. Other than that, just followed the simple recipe and WHAM! I got a great chicken pasta salad for lunch and snacking over the weekend.
this is a very good and Hearty salad I would recommend it to many of my friends
Very tasty! Colorful. This is the new go to salad. Thank you
Took this camping and we loved it. I substituted the rotisserie chicken for cubed ham instead. yummy!
It was very good!!
Easy recipe, very adaptable. I didn’t have bacon so I used Breakfast Sausage. I also added a bit of ranch dressing. BIG HIT with the family
Delicious! Excellent main course summer meal.
I have made this several times. Very good and just enough different from others. I use it as a main dish. Am making it again tomorrow for a group I will be visiting. I will double it and
This recipe was super! I made it without the chicken because I didn’t have any on hand. I also added a tbsp of bacon fat to the dressing just to bring out the bacon flavor. Not healthy I know, but it did add that extra bit of flavor. We loved it and will definitely make it again – and with chicken next time.