The PERFECT Tortellini Salad! Packed with the delicious flavors of pesto, pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese, this salad is easy to make and one of our go side dishes for summer parties!
For the longest time, I have been known among my friends as the “hostess with the mostess”. I’m not sure why, exactly….but I can tell you that I love having people over to my house and I love going all out to make sure they enjoy themselves! One of the BEST ways I know of to make sure people enjoy themselves? Serve them great food! And by great I don’t necessarily mean fancy, or difficult, or time-consuming….I mean SIMPLE food with GREAT flavors.
Since salads are one of my favorite kinds of food (and it’s easy to incorporate GREAT flavors into them), if you come to my house, you will probably get one…..or FIVE! Yep – when we had the girls’ birthday party this past weekend, you better believe we had FIVE different kinds of salad on the otherwise very simple menu of croissant sandwiches, potato chips, and lemonade. To be fair, I only made four of them…(my lovely neighbor offered to bring one)…and to be really fair, they were all extremely easy to make! Easy and delicious…just the way party food should be!
what you’ll need for this recipe
how to make pesto tortellini salad
Make the tortellini. Prepare the tortellini according to package instructions. Drain and rinse, then transfer to a large mixing bowl.
Prep the sun dried tomatoes, basil, and Parmesan. Chop the sun dried tomatoes and basil. Grate the Parmesan to desired size.
Combine the ingredients. Add all the ingredients together with the tortellini and mix well. Serve immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve.
Recipe Variations
- Use gnocchi, mini ravioli, or any of your favorite types of pasta
- Substitute Sun Dried Tomato Pesto
- Add extra vegetables, such as roasted red peppers, mushrooms, or red onion
- Substitute walnuts or any nuts for pine nuts
- Add fresh spinach for an extra dose of greens
- Substitute feta, goat cheese, or fresh mozzarella for Parmesan
The more years we do this party thing, the smarter I am getting about ONLY serving food that is hostess-friendly. No more chopping all the ingredients for fresh, homemade salsa for 40 people….no more last minute giant batches of guacamole. Who has time for that in the last remaining minutes before the party starts!? Everything I made this year can be prepared in advance and pulled out at the last minute!
One of my favorites of the day? This Pesto Tortellini Salad with pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes, red onion, and Parmesan cheese. Plenty of bold flavors that work well together….and a variety of textures so you don’t get bored! Not that you would get bored when you’re eating it at a party, but that’s beside the point.
Pesto Tortellini Salad
Ingredients
- 12 ounce package dried 3-Cheese Tortellini
- 1 cup fresh shaved Parmesan cheese
- 3/4 cups basil pesto
- 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes in oil chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh basil chopped
- 2 Tablespoons pine nuts
Instructions
- Prepare tortellini according to package instructions; drain and rinse.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine cooked tortellini and remaining ingredients. Mix well.
- Serve at room temperature or chilled.
This looks delish! I love tortellini salads.
That looks so tasty and I love that deep blue bowl, very mediterranean.
Louisa @ My Family & Abruzzo
Oh love this! I wish my hubby would eat more things like this 🙂
What I love about your recipes is that they are for normal people. Nothing crazy, not a billion ingredients, just simple things that a regular girl like me can do! This salad looks delicious and something I can actually pull off. Bravo Hostess with the Mostess! Can’t wait to see what else you served! Oh and um, I would be one to attempt homeade salsa for 40 only to realize it’s hotter than anything and have to run to the store for reinforcements. Yup!
Making this weekend! yay!
Girl, you literally put all my favorite ingredients in one place! Tortellini, pesto, pine nuts, cheese, sun-dried tomatoes…sounds like pure heaven.
I am SO making this! I just happen to have all the ingredients!
This really does look delicious and, as you said, it’s such a nice blend of textures, flavors and colors. I love tortellini, so look forward to making this.
What a great looking pasta salad!!! All the flavors and ingredients sound delicious, it looks wonderful!
Hi, this recipe looks so good and I can’t wait to try it! I saw it on craft-o-maniac.
Julie from julieslifestyle.blogspot.com
This looks fab! I love any kind of pasta salad!
I love tortellini but never thought to make a salad from them. This looks great! Thank you for linking to the In and Out of the Kitchen party. I am always glad to see you there!
I am pinning and sharing on Facebook!
I love anything with pesto and sundried tomatoes Cathy! Pinned and featuring tomorrow 🙂
I’ve been looking for a pesto recipe to make and I think my family would LOVE this recipe! Thanks for linking up to The Weekend re-Treat Link Party on The Best Blog Recipes!
Wanted to stop by and Pin your post to my Link Party Recipes/Crafts board while I was here tonight!
Shauna
http://thebestblogrecipes.com/
Hi Cathy, I wanted to let you know that I am featuring your awesome salad tonight at Best of the Weekend! I still can’t get over how delicious it looks 🙂
Pesto and sundried tomatoes ensure that I will be making this ASAP! 🙂
Yum! Pinning 🙂
Mmmmm this looks fantastic. The recipe doesn’t say how many pine nuts to put in. Also, do you toast them first?