Single Guy’s Macaroni Salad

Copyright 2008 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients
8 0z. Elbow pasta (about 2 cups), overcooked
1/4 cup red bellpepper, finely diced
½ cup mayonnaise
1½ T Dijon mustard
2 T Sweet relish
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1 t white pepper

Boil pasta per box instructions, but overcook it by two minutes to make it extra soft. (Be sure to salt the water to season your pasta.) Drain and set aside. In bowl, mix mayonnaise, mustard, sweet relish, sugar, salt and white pepper. Add bell pepper pieces to the pasta, then gradually toss a little of the mayonnaise mixture in at a time with pasta until you get the consistency that you prefer. Place in refrigerator. Serve cool.

Makes 4 servings. Serve with any grilled meat.

TIP: I recommend that you overcook your pasta because it’s better to eat the macaroni salad soft than hard. When you refrigerate the pasta, it’ll start to harden again from the cold, that’s why you want to overcook it to make sure it stays soft. You want to cook it so it’s floppy when taken out of the water.

WATCH THE MOISTURE: Make sure your pasta is cool before you start mixing it with the mayonnaise mixture. If you mix it when warm, the heat will make your mayonnaise runny. When you place the warm pasta in the refrigerator, it’ll also create condensation that will bring more moisture into your salad, giving you the dreaded runny version.