This Mediterranean tortellini salad options tender cheese-filled tortellini tossed with olives, crimson peppers, and feta cheese in a spicy tomato sauce with chili flakes. It’s a simple, flavorful summer time facet dish that’s additionally good for lunches and meal prep!
From my orzo salad with pears, crunchy walnuts, and gorgonzola cheese to these enjoyable tortellini antipasto skewers, and this household favourite rooster tortellini, we love utilizing tortellini in each which manner round right here!
Which brings me to this wonderful 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 variety goes. The tomato sauce dressing is slightly candy, slightly tangy, and slightly spicy. It’s significantly addictive. Whip up this straightforward tortellini pasta salad for lunch, dinner, or as a facet. It’s one among 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 simple 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 to 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 mentioned, there’s all the time the choice to swap in a creamy dressing or French dressing, whichever you like.
Elements You’ll Want
These are the components you’ll want, however as with most pasta salad recipes, nearly every thing is versatile! I’ve included notes under and extra variation concepts afterward. Scroll right down to the printable recipe card for the complete recipe particulars, adopted by a step-by-step with photographs.
- Tortellini – You’ll want a bundle of your favourite contemporary or frozen tortellini. I take advantage of four-cheese tortellini, however you may substitute a veggie or meat-filled selection. It’s as much as you. And should you don’t have tortellini, be happy to swap it for one more pasta, like penne, shells, rigatoni, and so forth.
- Roasted Purple Peppers – My favourite is the jarred roasted crimson bell peppers from Mezzetta. I’ll additionally typically substitute store-bought peppers with home made crimson pepper relish. I all the time have it within the pantry!
- Olives – These will be inexperienced olives, black olives, kalamata, or any mixture of olives you’d like. In the event you dislike olives, go away them out.
- Purple Pepper Flakes – You may skip these should you’re delicate to spice, and easily keep on with salt and freshly cracked pepper for seasoning.
- Tomato Sauce – Select your most popular jarred tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce. You may substitute store-bought with home made sauce, too.
- Basil – Recent basil chopped into skinny ribbons is greatest. You may substitute dried basil in a pinch (on this case, you’ll want 3x the quantity of dried basil).
- Feta Cheese – You may additionally use goat cheese or parmesan.
Ideas 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 may 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 slightly anchovy paste for some umami richness.
- Add pesto. For a taste increase, stir in contemporary basil pesto, spinach pesto, or parsley pesto. You may additionally skip the tomato sauce and substitute 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 may additionally toss in chopped grilled rooster or shredded air fryer rotisserie rooster.
- Completely different dressing. In the event you’d desire to swap the tomato dressing for one thing else, borrow the Italian dressing from my Italian pasta salad, or strive any of my home made salad dressings. A lot of them double for pasta salad dressings, too!
Make Forward and Storage
This chilly tortellini pasta salad is nice for meal prep. Make it as much as 2 days forward and maintain it refrigerated. You can even retailer any leftovers hermetic within the fridge.
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Prepare dinner the tortellini. Boil the tortellini based on bundle instructions. Drain and rinse; let utterly cool.
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Assemble the salad. In a serving bowl, mix cooked tortellini, chopped crimson peppers, inexperienced olives, crimson pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and tomato sauce; stir till completely blended.
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Garnish and serve. Add ribbons of basil leaves over the salad, and sprinkle with feta cheese. Serve chilly.
- This salad will be made 1 to 2 days forward. Maintain refrigerated.
Energy: 378kcal | Carbohydrates: 44g | Protein: 18g | Fats: 15g | Saturated Fats: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fats: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fats: 2g | Ldl cholesterol: 56mg | Sodium: 1374mg | Potassium: 189mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 660IU | Vitamin C: 14mg | Calcium: 274mg | Iron: 3mg
Dietary data is an estimate and supplied as courtesy. Values might fluctuate based on the components and instruments used. Please use your most popular dietary calculator for extra detailed data.
How one can Make Tortellini Pasta Salad
This straightforward tortellini salad comes collectively very quickly flat following the steps under.
