Homemade macaroni salad

My opinion on buying macaroni salad from the supermarket is the same as buying potato salad from the supermarket.  Why?  It’s so much easier and better tasting to make yourself.  Macaroni salad is easy to prepare at home and to me the macaroni salad that is delivered to the stores in 20 gallon tubs and artfully spooned out in the deli section to look “fresh” tastes more like chemicals than anything else.

 

As you might suspect, I have a few tricks and tips to improve on the basic recipe.

 

INGREDIENTS: 

• 1 box Ditalini macaroni (not a brand but a way the pasta is cut into short stubby pieces)
• 12-16 oz ham sliced ¼” thick (you can also prepare the salad with canned tuna, shrimp, crab or whatever suits your taste)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 green onion stalk
• ½ tsp fresh or dried basil
• ½ tsp fresh or dried dill
• Paprika for garnish
• 4-6 tbs real mayonnaise or mayo substitute
• 2 tsp yellow mustard (I use Weber’s Brand)
• 3-4 midget Gherkin pickles (optional)

 
PREPARATION:

 

Most macaroni salad is made with elbow macaroni.  Unfortunately the larger size of elbows competes with the flavors of the numerous other ingredients that I add, so I use the style known as Ditalini, otherwise known as salad macaroni.  By cutting several of the other ingredients into roughly ¼” pieces you have them sharing equal time in your salad.

 

Boil the macaroni is salted water to an al dente doneness and drain.  Return to the cooking pot and add the ham (or tuna, shrimp, crab) cut into ¼” cubes.  Slice the hardboiled eggs using an egg slicer and add.  Cut the bulb end off of the green onion stalk and cut the green stem into ¼” pieces.  Add the basil, dill, mustard and enough mayo to assure that the salad won’t be dry.  If you add pickles, dice them in a food processor until the pieces are about twice as big as those in pickle relish.

 

Transfer to serving dish and chill well for a couple of hours.  Sprinkle with paprika before serving.

MY MACARONI SALAD HISTORY:

In my home town it was very hard to find fresh fruits and vegetables during the long, bitter cold winter months. So when the weather warmed up my mom would make her Spring Salad, which like the robin was the first harbinger of the warmer days to come. Spring Salad was made as above with either canned tuna or, more likely, the leftovers from our Easter ham.  It was not intended to be a side dish but rather our entire meal.

When I went out on my own Spring Salad became my tradition and not one year has passed without me making it at least once, and usually something I will get an urge to make on any day that is unusually warm for the season.  The salad in the photo was made as the weather here started to take a turn toward cooler days and nights where it won't be long before I start thinking of the more robust foods to warm ourselves during the winter months.

 
QUOTE FOR THE DAY:

 

"If you have a complete set of salad bowls and they all say Kool Whip on the side, you might be a redneck"
 
-Jeff Foxworthy


Share this with your Facebook friends by clicking  f   in the comments box below