When I was invited a while back to participate in the Hidden Valley Ranchify Recipe Challenge – which involved “ranchifying a recipe” using Hidden Valley Ranch dressing, I knew exactly the combination of ingredients I wanted to use: Bacon, lettuce and tomatoes. But not in a sandwich.
Whilst I love the idea of BLT sandwiches sometimes they come with way too much mayonnaise. Generally when I make them myself, I either make my own mayonnaise and go easy on how much I use or else, when I am pressed for time, I use a little bit of ranch dressing on my bread – a little bit goes a long way which I like – no soggy bread! This dish takes all the flavours of the classic sandwich and delivers them under the guise of a spaghetti with a “Hidden” ingredient that even your friends with the keenest palates will not be able to guess. I mean really, who would think of putting salad dressing in a pasta dish?
Well I certainly put a lot of thought into this one and over my final week in Toronto, I made it FOUR times. On the day I left (or attempted to leave for the first time!) Neil said to me “How many more servings of that pasta dish are there?” – but acknowledging that I really got it right on the fourth go around!
The first time, I simply warmed the ranch dressing with the rest of the “sauce” ingredients. It was good. Just missing something. The ranch dressing kind of evaporated, so it didn’t look like there was any sauce at all, though you could definitely taste it.
The next time, I added some ricotta to thicken the sauce slightly. I mean I didn’t want a creamy sauce, just one that was slightly more discernible…
This was really good. So good that on this photo on Instagram, Aimée commented that she’d love to try it when she was in Toronto and we were supposed to be having dinner with Jan. So I invited them over (no pressure, just two of the most inspiring and talented cooks/ bakers that I know….).
We ate, we enjoyed. Neither of them guessed the “hidden” ingredient…
Since by this point I had eaten a lot of this pasta, I knew this one was good, but in the back of my mind, I had a niggling feeling that there was a texture “thing” I could possibly work on. I’d already divided the arugula, leaving some for the very end of the dish so that there was some not-so-wilted leaves in there. I’d cooked the tomatoes way less each time, preferring the less mushy version and it was good. But when both Aimée and Jan suggested breadcrumbs, I wondered why I had not thought of that – I mean, right there is the “sandwich” part of the dish inspired by the sandwich, right?
Next time, I used panko breadcrumbs lightly fried in some butter (right?). It was really, very good. Thanks ladies for your input!
All the flavour of a BLT in a pasta dish. With a "Hidden" ingredient!BLT pasta
Ingredients
Instructions
This will be a staple dish in my house from now on. So easy, so tasty. And I love the “unexpected” factor when you tell people what’s in it 🙂 Thanks Jan and Aimée and Neil for the useful input!
Disclosure: I was invited to take part in the Hidden Valley Ranch Ranchify Recipe Challenge. I received samples of ranch dressing and a grocery gift card to cover the cost of ingredients for the purpose of developing a recipe using the ranch dressing. I was not further compensated for writing this post, though there are prizes for winning recipes, as judged by Chef Ned Bell of the Four Seasons YEW Restaurant in Vancouver.
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Great post! This was so good, Mardi, and I really appreciate the dinner invite after my cheeky suggestion. it was lovely to hang out with you and Jan – with a pan of this delicious dish to enjoy.
Anytime you are in Montreal, just let me know. My specialty is lobster spaghetti. 😉
Thanks for the taste testing services!
Great idea for pasta!
I was hungry just looking at the pics, Mardi.
You can make this for me when you’re down under at the end of the year.
Will do!
That sounds yummy! I love all the add-ins 🙂
It’s definitely tasty!