The Burger Topping That Does Wonders For Pasta Salad

Draw the easiest straw for the potluck or picnic one too many times, and you can make that old staple, pasta salad, in your sleep. Take the short noodle shape of your preference, add a smattering of veggies, a few simple seasonings, and some kind of dressing to hold it all together, and your contribution to the event is done with convincing aplomb. However, there are plenty of ways to make homemade and even store-bought pasta salad more interesting. A few handfuls of sliced or chopped pickles, repurposed from your burger-making station, is as easy a tasty upgrade as any.

This makes perfect sense when you think about the usual burger accouterments. The same mayo you might dollop on a patty is also a common pasta salad coating. The same goes for typical burger botanicals, such as tomatoes and onions, which are also right at home in pasta salad. The cubed cheese that plenty of people add to their cold fusilli and farfalle further demonstrates even more crossover appeal, and pickles are the logical conclusion to all of these delicious similarities. Still, you should adjust your recipe for the briny, preserved cucumber bits before you dig in.

The crisp, green pickles you likely find on burgers are characterized by their acidity, salinity, and perky, sour punch. So, you don't want your pasta salad binder to be too heavy on any of those elements if you want to create the most balanced bite. Plenty of folks prefer pickles in their mayo-based salads thanks to those flavors; vinegar-based pasta salads just have too many of those zippy pickle qualities to really work in harmony with the pucker-promoting addition. A milder, creamy cloak of mayo better lets the pickles take the lead.

You should also walk back the amount of salt you normally use by about half before you stir everything together, and see how the pickles perform amid the mix; the full amount might be too much. You can add a bit more as needed prior to serving. Any other overly acidic or salty elements can also get the axe until you know if they complement or compete with the pickles when the salad is otherwise complete. It probably goes without saying, but, if your secret pasta salad ingredient was already pickle juice, you can hold that this time, too. Pickles have a similarly bright, unique effect, just in less-secret composition.