Dish of Pasta Salad with Ham
(click to enlarge)

Pasta Salad with Ham


France   -   Salade de Macaroni au Jambon
Serves:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 5 salad
**
40 min
Best		 Simple and easy to make, this salad is astonishingly delicious. Served as a buffet party dish, it is one your guests will not soon forget - make plenty.

4
7
2
2
------
1-1/2
1/3
4
1/3
1/4
oz
oz
lrg
oz
---
c
c
T
t
t
Pasta (1)
Ham, cooked
Eggs
Pickles (2)
-- Dressing
Mayonnaise (3)
Cream, heavy
Lemon Juice
Salt
Pepper

In a dish so simple, quality of ingredients and care with texture are critical.

Make   -   (40 min)
  1. Cook PASTA the usual way in plenty of rapidly boiling salted water until just done - do not overcook! Drain well and stir in just a few drops of olive oil to keep it from sticking together. Chill well.
  2. Cut HAM into 1/4 inch dice.
  3. Hard cook EGGS in salted water. Peel and chill them. Slice them fairly thin and cut slices into halves or quarters (depending on diameter).
  4. Slice PICKLES thin and chop slices fairly small.
  5. Mix together all Dressing Items until smooth.
  6. Mix all Items except egg slices together with the Dressing. When thoroughly and uniformly mixed, mix in Egg Slices.
  7. Serve well chilled.
NOTES:

  1. Pasta:

      This should be a very small tubular form. The photo specimen was made with miniature elbow macaroni, and I was quite happy with the result.

  2. Pickles:

      The pattern recipe calls for "Gherkins", which means rather small cucumber pickles (real gherkins are almost impossible to find even in India). The important thing is that they taste good. I used very small and fairly mild kosher dills, and they worked fine.

  3. Mayonnaise:

      Home made is best, but can be risky, especially in business friendly Red States, due to the raw egg yolks. Second best is Hellmann's "Real Mayonnaise" (east of the Mississippi) or Best Foods Real (west of the Mississippi), as nearly all food writers agree.
  4. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste
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