Pasta Broccoli Salad with Bacon

My Favorite Pasta Salad

This  is by far my favorite pasta salad and I fix it when I want to take it to a special event. One of my dearest friends, Shirley Siddall, gave me this recipe in 1990 and I've never seen this exact one on Pinterest, so it is unique. The recipe makes a huge bowl full. In fact it almost fills up one of those large Tupperware bowls that used to be sold in the 1970"s and 1980's. You remember. They came in green or yellow. If you never had one chances are your mom or grandmother did.

I have to warn you. This is a sweet salad, but it's not as sickeningly sweet as some of those other sweet broccoli salads. In fact you can control the sweetness. I don't add as much sugar as the original recipe calls for. Also, keep in mind the bacon is essential in this salad. Mozzarella cheese also helps it not taste so sweet.
Everyone who tries this loves it and I hope you do too!

Pasta Broccoli Salad with Bacon

Ingredients

1 - 16 oz box Bowtie Pasta (you can substitute gluten free pasta. My favorite GF pastas is Barilla in the blue box or  Ronzoni in the yellow box. Also, Trader Joe's and Aldi have GF pasta)

1 large head fresh broccoli, cut into small pieces (can use cauliflower too)

¾ - 1 cup sweet red onion or sweet Vidalia onion, chopped (to take some of the hotness away from the red onion you can soak the chopped onion in ice water for 30 mins - 1 hour)

1 lb pkg Hickory Smoked Bacon, cooked

3 cups Mozzarella cheese, grated

Sauce

1-1½ cups Hellman's mayonnaise or Duke's if you eat GF (not salad dressing)

½ cup sour cream

½ - ¾ cup sugar (The original calls for 1 cup sugar but I think that's too much. Just go by your taste)

3 - 6 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar (I use 2-3 at the most. Go by your taste here too)

Salt to taste, if needed

Cook pasta as directed on package. Drain in cold water rinsing off some of the starch so it won't stick together. Place in large bowl.
In the meantime, place bacon on large cookie sheet that had been sprayed with oil in 375º oven and cook til crisp. Remove from oven and place on paper towels to drain.
Put onions, broccoli and mozzarella cheese in same bowl with the pasta.
Make the sauce snd slowly stir it in with the pasta mixture, small amounts at a time, to make sure you don't get too much. Break up the bacon, but do not add the bacon til right before serving. If I take this to a pot-luck or family holiday dinner, I put the bacon in a baggie, placing it on top of the pasta. If the bacon is cold from storing it in the refrigerator, heat it up on about 30 seconds in the microwave before adding to the salad. Stir and serve!