Take Inspiration From This Mexican Snack For A Creamy, Flavorful Pasta Salad

Pasta is one of those versatile ingredients that pairs with just about any ingredient and can be served at any temperature. Cold pasta often comes in the form of pasta salad. But if you want an extra-creamy mayonnaise-based version that's bursting with flavor, take inspiration from elote, the Mexican street corn made with a few robust ingredients and spices.

Elote is made by grilling corn — though you can also broil it — and then smothering it in a blend of sour cream, mayonnaise, and crema before coating it with two main additions: cotija cheese and chile powder. It usually sees a squeeze of lime juice, too, and might be garnished with cilantro. You would normally eat it hot, but for pasta salad, room temperature or chilled is fine. The ingredients make for an easy transition from a corn cob to a bowl of pasta; you just cook the corn, then slice it off the cob, and add your spices and garnishes to taste. The elote garnishes and condiments are perfect for pasta salad because they're creamy and strike a balance of tanginess and richness.

Start your pasta salad off right by choosing the best shape. Since the mayo-based dressing will be thicker than a vinegar-based one, stick with noodles that can stand up to the sauce's texture. Compact rotini or radiatori are both great picks because the sauce will hold onto the folds of the spirals and squiggles.

Cotija cheese crumbles easily, so you won't have to do much to break it off the wedge. It's a sharp, semi-hard, moist cow's milk cheese with a very similar texture to feta. It's also quite salty, so it's best to crumble it finely; big pieces might overpower the other ingredients in the salad. A freshly opened container of chile powder will be spicy, so start with just a small amount, such as a teaspoon per cooked box of pasta, and increase as desired to reach your preferred spice level. If you're serving the elote pasta salad to guests, it might be best to offer the lime juice and cilantro as individual garnishes so people can add as much acidity and extra flavor as they want. Since not everyone is a fan of cilantro, some people might leave it off entirely. Finally, if you're preparing the salad ahead of time, try dressing it twice to keep it from getting too dry.