Well, OK, mebbe not 2 days, but overnight, at least. Still, once you’ve tasted this macaroni salad, you won’t have minded the wait, it is just that good.
The secret is in the dressing; you make twice as much as the recipe calls for, then stir half of it into your cooked, drained, and rinsed pasta and stash it in the fridge overnight. The pasta will absorb all that dressing flavor right along with a bunch of liquid, leaving you a truly tasty base for whatever you care to add. Here’s what I did:
INGREDIENTS
Dressing (amounts already doubled):
•1 cup mayonnaise
•1-1/2 tsp dry mustard
•1 tbsp sugar
•3 tbsp cider vinegar
•3/8 cup sour cream
•1/2 tsp seasoned salt
•1/2 tsp celery salt
•Freshly ground pepper
•Aleppo pepper
Salad:
•2 cups dry macaroni
•1/3 cup celery, diced
•1/2 cup red onion, diced
•2 baby red sweet peppers, diced
•1 or 2 carrots, diced
Boil, drain, and rinse your macaroni – as a side note, da Google says that the only time you want to rinse pasta is when you are going to use it in a cold salad.
Stir together the dressing ingredients and stash in a jar – I use a pint canning jar.
Add half of the dressing to the cooked pasta and stir to combine – it will look a little soupy.
Cover and pop into the fridge for at least 2 hours or (best) overnight. All that extra liquid (and flavor) will have soaked into the macaroni, and you are now ready to finish and serve one fine salad.
Stir in the remaining dressing, then the veggies, and toss to combine.
Taste for seasoning and add a bit more salt and pepper if you think it needs it.
Serve; or cover and stash it back in the fridge to well and truly chill the whole thing.
Tasty.