Tortellini Salad | Diethood

This Mediterranean tortellini salad options tender cheese-filled tortellini tossed with olives, purple peppers, and feta cheese in a spicy tomato sauce with chili flakes. It’s a straightforward, flavorful summer time facet dish that’s additionally good for lunches and meal prep!

Tortellini pasta salad in a salad bowl with two wooden spoons placed in the salad.

From my orzo salad with pears, crunchy walnuts, and gorgonzola cheese to these enjoyable tortellini antipasto skewers, and this household favourite hen tortellini, we love utilizing tortellini in each which method round right here!

Which brings me to this superb salad. With briny olives and tangy feta, this tortellini salad is PACKED with scrumptious, daring Mediterranean flavors. I make mine with 4 cheese tortellini, however any form goes. The tomato sauce dressing is somewhat candy, somewhat tangy, and somewhat spicy. It’s significantly addictive. Whip up this straightforward tortellini pasta salad for lunch, dinner, or as a facet. It’s certainly one of my favourite spins on mayo-free pasta salad, and simply as good for summertime meals.

Issues to Love About This Tortellini Salad

Mediterranean-inspired flavors. That is a straightforward recipe loaded with candy roasted peppers, briny olives, and tangy feta with tomato sauce, with a touch of crushed chili warmth.
A contemporary spin on pasta salad. Tortellini is a enjoyable twist that lends much more taste to this pasta salad. You may swap out cheese tortellini in your favourite meaty or vegetarian filling.
No mayo. Tomato sauce rounds out the tacky tortellini and makes this tortellini salad wealthy and saucy with out mayo. It’s gentle, contemporary, and scrumptious. That being stated, there’s all the time the choice to swap in a creamy dressing or French dressing, whichever you favor.

Tortellini pasta salad ingredients with text labels overlaying each ingredient.

Elements You’ll Want

These are the elements you’ll want, however as with most pasta salad recipes, nearly all the pieces is versatile! I’ve included notes beneath and extra variation concepts in a while. Scroll all the way down to the printable recipe card for the total recipe particulars, adopted by a step-by-step with photographs.

Tortellini – You’ll want a bundle of your favourite contemporary or frozen tortellini. I exploit four-cheese tortellini, however you possibly can substitute a veggie or meat-filled selection. It’s as much as you. And in case you don’t have tortellini, be at liberty to swap it for one more pasta, like penne, shells, rigatoni, and many others.
Roasted Crimson Peppers – My favourite is the jarred roasted purple bell peppers from Mezzetta. I’ll additionally generally substitute store-bought peppers with do-it-yourself purple pepper relish. I all the time have it within the pantry!
Olives – These might be inexperienced olives, black olives, kalamata, or any mixture of olives you’d like. If you happen to dislike olives, depart them out.
Crimson Pepper Flakes – You may skip these in case you’re delicate to spice, and easily keep on with salt and freshly cracked pepper for seasoning.
Tomato Sauce – Select your most well-liked jarred tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce. You may change store-bought with do-it-yourself sauce, too.
Basil – Contemporary basil chopped into skinny ribbons is finest. You may substitute dried basil in a pinch (on this case, you’ll want 3x the quantity of dried basil).
Feta Cheese – You can additionally use goat cheese or parmesan.

Wooden spoon stirring through a large bowl of tortellini pasta salad.

Suggestions and Variations

Instantly rinse the tortellini after cooking. When you’ve boiled the tortellini, instantly drain and rinse the pasta beneath chilly water. This stops the pasta from cooking additional, which might make it mushy.
Salt the pasta water. The key to flavorful pasta? 1-2 heaping spoonfuls of salt added to the water earlier than boiling. This is applicable to any pasta dish, chilly or heat.
Extra add-ins. I really like adapting this tortellini salad with extra Mediterranean-inspired add-ins like capers, sun-dried tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, mozzarella pearls, chopped artichoke hearts, and even somewhat anchovy paste for some umami richness.
Add pesto. For a taste increase, stir in contemporary basil pesto, spinach pesto, or parsley pesto. You can additionally skip the tomato sauce and change it with pesto as an alternative for a pesto tortellini pasta salad.
Add protein. Bulk up this pasta salad with protein like sliced pepperoni, salami, prosciutto. You can additionally toss in chopped grilled hen or shredded air fryer rotisserie hen.
Totally different dressing. If you happen to’d choose to swap the tomato dressing for one thing else, borrow the Italian dressing from my Italian pasta salad, or attempt any of my do-it-yourself salad dressings. Lots of them double for pasta salad dressings, too!

Bowl of tortellini pasta salad garnished with basil leaves.

Make Forward and Storage

This chilly tortellini pasta salad is nice for meal prep. Make it as much as 2 days forward and preserve it refrigerated. It’s also possible to retailer any leftovers hermetic within the fridge.

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Prepare dinner the tortellini. Boil the tortellini in keeping with bundle instructions. Drain and rinse; let fully cool.
Assemble the salad. In a serving bowl, mix cooked tortellini, chopped purple peppers, inexperienced olives, purple pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and tomato sauce; stir till completely combined.
Garnish and serve. Add ribbons of basil leaves over the salad, and sprinkle with feta cheese. Serve chilly.

This salad might be made 1 to 2 days forward. Hold refrigerated.

Dietary data is an estimate and offered as courtesy. Values might range in keeping with the elements and instruments used. Please use your most well-liked dietary calculator for extra detailed data.