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This tortellini pasta salad recipe is quick and easy to make anytime of the year, and full of the best savory flavors!
Meet my new anytime-of-the-year tortellini salad recipe. ♡
This one initially came about as I was trying to come up with a festive red-and-green dish to bring to a Christmas party. But it ended up being so delicious that it’s for sure going on our regular pasta salad rotation from here on out.
Mainly, I love this tortellini pasta salad recipe because it’s made with super-simple pantry and refrigerated ingredients that are easy to source year-round. (As in, no need to settle for watery fresh tomatoes or lackluster fresh veggies this year when they’re not in season!) Instead, just reach in your pantry for a jar of artichoke hearts and sun-dried tomatoes, pick up a few packages of fresh tortellini and baby arugula the next time you’re at the store, toast up a a handful of pine nuts and whisk together a quick vinaigrette. Then in less than 15 minutes, the most flavorful easy pasta salad will be yours to enjoy this holiday season or anytime of the year.
Serve it up cold or warm, use it as an appetizer or main dish, make it gluten-free or vegan if you’d like — the options to customize this versatile recipe are pretty endless. Let’s make a quick batch!
Tortellini Pasta Salad Ingredients:
To make this tortellini pasta salad recipe, you will need:
Fresh tortellini: One package of fresh tortellini (whatever flavor you prefer) from the refrigerated section of the grocery store, cooked according to package instructions.
Artichoke hearts: One jar (marinated or not — up to you), drained and roughly-chopped.
Sun-dried tomatoes: One small jar, drained and roughly-chopped
Arugula: Or baby spinach, kale, or any other greens you might prefer.
Pine nuts: Briefly toasted, to bring out their flavor.
Parmesan cheese: I used shaved Parmesan, but grated Parmesan would also be great.
Vinaigrette: Made simply with olive oil, red wine (or balsamic) vinegar, Dijon, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.
How To Make This Tortellini Salad:
To make this tortellini salad recipe, simply…
Cook the tortellini. Cook the tortellini according to package directions in a large stockpot of generously-salted boiling water. Drain the tortellini in a strainer, then rinse with cold water until the pasta has cooled.
Make the vinaigrette. Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl (or shake together in a mason jar) until combined.
Mix everything together. In a large mixing bowl, add the tortellini ingredients and vinaigrette. Toss until evenly combined.
Serve. Serve immediately, garnished with extra Parmesan cheese. Or transfer to a food storage container and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Possible Variations:
This pasta salad recipe is incredibly versatile, so feel free to customize your own and use whatever ingredients you love best. For example, you could…
Serve it warm. This would taste equally delicious as a hot pasta dish, instead of being served as a cold pasta salad. Just cook and drain the tortellini, toss it with the remaining ingredients and serve warm.
Add roasted red peppers. I’m also a huge fan of adding roasted red peppers to pasta salads.
Add olives and/or capers. Feel free to toss in some olives or capers, if you would like some extra briny flavors.
Use pasta. If you don’t happen to love tortellini or have some on hand, this pasta salad would also be delicious just made with traditional pasta shapes (such as penne or bow-tie pasta).
Use fresh tomatoes. If you happen to be making this salad in the summertime when tomatoes are in season, feel free to sub sliced cherry tomatoes in for the sun-dried tomatoes.
Use a different kind of cheese. Baby mozzarella balls (or burrata) would be delicious in place of (or in addition to) Parmesan cheese.
Make it gluten-free. Just use gluten-free tortellini. (And, as always, double-check that all of your other ingredients are certified gluten-free.)
Make it vegan. Use vegan tortellini or ravioli (or you could just use straight pasta). And you could either use vegan Parmesan cheese, or just add in a few generous pinches of nutritional yeast.
This tortellini pasta salad recipe is quick and easy to make anytime of the year, and full of the best savory flavors!
Ingredients
Scale
Tortellini Salad Ingredients:
1 (20-ounce) package fresh tortellini
1 (15-ounce) jar artichoke hearts, drained and roughly chopped
1 (6-ounce) jar sun-dried tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped
5 ounces fresh baby arugula
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
lots of freshly-grated Parmesan cheese
Vinaigrette Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (or balsamic vinegar)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced (or pressed)
1/2 teaspoon freshly-cracked black pepper
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Instructions
Cook the tortellini. Cook the tortellini according to package directions in a large stockpot of generously-salted boiling water. Drain the tortellini in a strainer, then rinse with cold water until the pasta has cooled.
Make the vinaigrette. Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl (or shake together in a mason jar) until combined.
Mix everything together. In a large mixing bowl, add the tortellini ingredients and vinaigrette. Toss until evenly combined.
Serve. Serve immediately, garnished with extra Parmesan cheese. Or transfer to a food storage container and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Looks delicious and SO different to normal Christmas food. Just the thing for next weekend when we’ve all had enough of festive fare and need something to liven up our tastebuds. In fact, it’s almost tempting to bypass the turkey and move straight on to this. I just slow-roasted a pack of almost gone-over cherry tomatoes I found hiding in the back of the fridge. This will be the perfect opportunity to use some of them. I like the idea of doing it as a warm salad – that way the rocket will just wilt a little. Yummy. Thanks for sharing all of your lovely ideas with us this year. Wishing all of you at gimmesomeoven HQ a very merry Christmas and a healthy and happy 2020.
Absolutely delicious! Brought this to a small gathering and everybody loved it -even the meat eaters! This is a winner hot or cold! I added fresh basil and cherry tomatoes! Try it -u will love it!!
Hi Ali
thank you for all of your wonderful recipes. You are my go to person!! Is there any way to provide the nutirtional information for those of us doing weight watchers?
Debbie
I made this for a party and it was really yummy! I’ll definitely make it again. It was a hit! It’s nice to bring something healthy to a party where there’s a lot of not-so-healthy offerings. The dressing was on point.
Looks delicious and SO different to normal Christmas food. Just the thing for next weekend when we’ve all had enough of festive fare and need something to liven up our tastebuds. In fact, it’s almost tempting to bypass the turkey and move straight on to this. I just slow-roasted a pack of almost gone-over cherry tomatoes I found hiding in the back of the fridge. This will be the perfect opportunity to use some of them. I like the idea of doing it as a warm salad – that way the rocket will just wilt a little. Yummy. Thanks for sharing all of your lovely ideas with us this year. Wishing all of you at gimmesomeoven HQ a very merry Christmas and a healthy and happy 2020.
Ali
This will be yummy! I love marinated artichoke hearts!
Thanks for sharing this and all your wonderful posts!
Merry Christmas to you and Barclay!
We cannot eat pine nuts. . Your thoughts on a substitute? Thank you!
Feel free to sub in any nuts/seeds that you love best! Walnuts or pistachios would be delicious, or also pepitas or sunflower seeds. :)
Absolutely delicious! Brought this to a small gathering and everybody loved it -even the meat eaters! This is a winner hot or cold! I added fresh basil and cherry tomatoes! Try it -u will love it!!
Hi Ali
thank you for all of your wonderful recipes. You are my go to person!! Is there any way to provide the nutirtional information for those of us doing weight watchers?
Debbie
This is so good! I used romaine lettuce and pecorino because it was already in my fridge. The dressing is delicious. Will definitely make again!
I made this for a party and it was really yummy! I’ll definitely make it again. It was a hit! It’s nice to bring something healthy to a party where there’s a lot of not-so-healthy offerings. The dressing was on point.
So good, will definitely remake for parties and holidays!