Make Your BLT Pasta Salad Feel Fancy With Two Simple Swaps

A BLT pasta salad featuring shards of crispy bacon and fresh lettuce makes a welcome change from a classic BLT sandwich but it can seem a little basic. To make your salad feel fancy simply swap the bacon and lettuce for pancetta and arugula.

While smoky and savory nuggets of bacon are yummy in anyone's book, pancetta has a saltier quality and complex flavor. This is because it's salt-cured and air-dried, rather than smoked, which lends it more of a delicate, nuanced taste. Both products are made from pork belly, but bacon tends to be chewier when cooked, whereas pancetta has a softer texture. This variety of cured meat also works wonderfully with the peppery notes of fresh arugula. Almost spicy and nutty, arugula is a salad leaf that's packed with attitude. Unlike lettuce that lacks noticeable personality, the kick of the arugula creates a distinctive salad that melds with the texture of the al dente pasta and the assured saltiness of the pancetta. 

This summer BLT pasta salad recipe is the perfect inspiration to get started, as you can simply sub the mixed salad leaves and bacon for arugula and pancetta. However, seeing as pancetta is saltier than bacon, you may need to adjust the seasonings in the lemon-y dressing. However, you could combine honey in your dressing to offset some of that saltiness, or add a dash of mustard to balance out the flavors and imbue your dish with some warming heat.

The awesome thing about pasta salad is that it benefits from a heavy dressing. As the carby noodles sit in the fridge, they soak up a vinaigrette and absorb all that punchy flavor, which is why the most flavorful pasta salads are dressed twice; once when being prepared and again just before serving. When making a BLT pasta salad ahead of time, take care to add your lettuce or greens to the bowl moments before eating to guarantee that they stay fresh and crisp.

If you're missing the bread in your BLT salad, consider subbing the pasta for day-old chunks of bread to create an Italian-style panzanella. This Tuscan dish is made by sauteing or oven-baking the bread until it crisps up the edges before it's tossed into a mixture of vegetables, like tomatoes and olives, and dressed in a vinaigrette. To turn this dish into a BLT salad, simply pan-fry your cubes of pancetta until golden, set aside, and saute your bread in the rendered fat to lend it an umami character and savory, golden surface. Finally, mix your tomatoes, pancetta, arugula, and bread together before drizzling with your dressing. Unlike a pasta salad, which can comfortably sit in the fridge for days, a panzanella salad is best eaten immediately so the bread doesn't become soggy.