Italian Tortellini Pasta Salad
After years and YEARS of making this tortellini salads, it is STILL our family favorite. It’s almost like taking an Italian Sub and turning it into a pasta salad. But not just any pasta salad, a four cheese tortellini pasta salad.
Making a pasta salad with cheese tortellini instead adds an incredible layer of flavor and texture. It takes you pasta salad game to a whole new level! Just make sure to use cheese tortellini flavor like “four cheese” or “three cheese” and not something like a spinach and mushroom. You don’t want competing flavors in your pasta salad.
Homemade Italian dressing is also a key because you can CHOOSE your ingredients, it adds the best flavor to the salad overall, and you most likely already have the ingredients in the pantry!
Variations and Substitutions
Tortellini – It’s best to get tortellini from the refrigerated section of the grocery store. It’s fast and easy to cook, but make sure to cool it down to room temperature before adding other ingredients. For this tortellini salad, choose four cheese tortellini when possible.
Meats -I highly recommend that you get better quality meats from the deli section of your grocery store and ask to slice it fresh. You can also control the slice thickness that way. (Substitution: if you can’t find capicola, you can use any of your favorite ham.)
Choose your peppers – you can actually use banana peppers or pepperoncini peppers. Banana peppers are a little milder and pepperoncini are a little spicier.
Make Ahead Instructions
There are two ways to make this Italian tortellini salad ahead of time. You can cook tortellini the day before and then make the rest or the salad when ready. Or, take it a step further and prepare everything except for mixing in the dressing ahead of time.
- Prepare Just Tortellini: If making tortellini ahead of time, cook and cool tortellini. Mix cooled tortellini with a little bit of Italian dressing or olive oil so it doesn’t stick together too much. Store cooked tortellini in a food storage container with a lid, in the refrigerator, until ready to use.
- Prepare most of the pasta salad: You can also prepare the salad completely without the dressing and tomatoes. I find it’s best when tomatoes are cut and added to the salad right before serving. If dressing is added the night before to any pasta salad, pasta tends to soak in all the liquid and the salad will be dry.
- Prepare the dressing: combine everything for the dressing and shake it well. Store in an air-tight container or right in a dressing shaker, in the refrigerator.
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Italian Tortellini Pasta Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Tortellini Salad:
- 20 oz three cheese tortellini
- 10 oz cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 2/3 cup banana peppers chopped
- 1/4 lb capicola ham chopped
- 1/4 lb pepperoni chopped
- 1/3 lb hard salami chipped
- 8 oz fresh mozzarella cheese chopped
- 2 Tbsp minced Italian parsley
- 6-8 basil leaves minced
- Salt
Dressing:
- 1/2 cup virgin olive oil
- 2 Tbsp white balsamic vinegar white wine vinegar can be substituted
- 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 3 garlic cloves pressed
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes Use more or less according to personal taste
- 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
- Salt
Instructions
- Cook tortellini according to the package, drain well and transfer into a large mixing bowl. Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil so it won’t stick together and let it cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
- Chop meats, tomatoes, banana peppers and cheese. Add it to the cooled tortellini in the bowl.
- Mince herbs and add it to the mixing bowl as well. Add some salt and mix well.
- In a jar with a lid, combine ingredients for the dressing. Close the jar and shake well.
- Pour dressing into the bowl with tortellini mixture and mix until fully incorporated.
- Cover and refrigerate salad before serving.
Video
Notes
- Serving: This salad is great cold or room temperature! Personally, I prefer it at room temperature because some ingredients in the dressing and tortellini filling do solidity. It is a personal preference though.
- Storing: To store leftover tortellini salad, transfer it into a food storage container with a lid and keep it refrigerated. Tortellini salad will last for 3-5 days refrigerated. You may need to add a little more dressing after it’s been in the fridge for a while because pasta tends to soak up all the dressing liquids.
- Prepare Just Tortellini: If making tortellini ahead of time, cook and cool tortellini. Mix cooled tortellini with a little bit of Italian dressing or olive oil so it doesn’t stick together too much. Store cooked tortellini in a food storage container with a lid, in the refrigerator, until ready to use.
- Prepare most of the pasta salad: You can also prepare the salad completely without the dressing and tomatoes. So prepare pasta, meats, cheese, banana peppers, and herbs and mix it all together. Transfer everything into a food storage container with a lid. Store the salad mixture in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Add dressing and cut tomatoes when ready to serve.
Nutrition
Storing Recommendation
To store leftover tortellini salad, transfer it into a food storage container with a lid and keep it refrigerated. Tortellini salad will last for 3-5 days refrigerated. You may need to add a little more dressing after it’s been in the fridge for a while because pasta tends to soak up all the dressing liquids.
Some More Tortellini And Pasta Salad Recipes To Try
Originally published on Will Cook For Smiles on May 27th, 2015.
Categories:
Appetizer Recipes, Backyard BBQ Recipes, Italian Dinner Recipes, Pasta Recipes, Salad Recipes, Side Dishes,All images and text ©Lyubov Brooke for ©Will Cook For Smiles. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.
Disclaimer: Nutrition information shown is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate as most ingredients and brands have variations.
Wasn’t this salad made with herbs de provence and not Italian seasoning? If so, why did you change it?
Hi Nicki!
To be honest, I don’t remember changing it at all. If could be the recipe card software when I updated to include the conversion and nutritional facts. I’ll have to see if I can find an older version. But you can totally use herbs de Provence if you want!
I am so happy you liked it, Tanya!
I love all the deli meat in this pasta salad, so good!
The recipe says “chipped” hard salami. What doesn’t that mean?
Haha, it means that I edit my own writing too fast and look right over typos 🙂
I will fix it to say “chopped.”
Thank you, Christine!
Great Recipe! How many does this recipe serve? Wanting to make for a Baby Shower
Oh, I would say 6-8 but it always depends on how much someone can eat 🙂
I hope you enjoy it!
Thank you, Nikki!
Hi! How many does this recipe serve?
Hi Shanna!
I would estimate 6-8 servings. I hope you like it!
This looks so amazing, and I intend on making it for a work picnic Friday. I thought it might be fun to incorporate a local restaurant’s Italian dressing (I live in a heavily Italian populated area). Everyone here loves that dressing, so I thought it would be fun to incorporate it. Do you think that would work? I hope that doesn’t come across as an insult to your recipe, as I’m sure the dressing is absolutely wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! I know everyone is going to love it.
I’m sorry for the late response, Victoria. I hope it went well! You can use whatever Italian dressing you wish (homemade, store bought, restaurant made etc.) and it will work just fine.
I made the tortellini salad for dinner tonight and it was absolutely delicious! All the different flavors combined made it one of the tastiest salads I’ve made. Thank you so much!!
I love hearing that! Thank you so much, Debbie!
How about trying to connect with a broader audience by not rubbing in the fact that you don’t work? Just a suggestion to appeal to more moms who might like this site. Maybe just connect through the food and general famiky stories…
Kay – Bitter much. #1 She works from home and #2 Being a stay at home mom is work. Stay at home mom’s are the ones who pick up the slack for those of us that are not able or willing to make that choice. I for one appreciate the extra effort that the stay at home moms in my community put in.
Ditto! I’m proud of her ,being a stay at home Mom is the best thing for the whole family as far as I’m concerned {if you are able} and trust me a lot of stay at home Moms do sacrifice ,they don’t have the social interactions that a working Mom has.
Thank you, Sharon!
I like to joke with my husband that he gets to go out to work and interact with adults every day unlike me 😀
Hi Kay,
I’m sorry you thought I was “rubbing in” the fact that I work from home. This is actually work. It takes a whole lot of marketing to have this site going, it takes a lot of time to create/photograph/write these recipe posts, as well as, writing and having a cookbook published. I started working from home while going through grad school, which I recently finished. I will also be continuing PHD work within the next couple of years, once my special needs child can have an easier time at school…where I volunteer.
I’m sorry you felt the need to assume I just sit at home all day while others work. I was a working girl (two jobs at many times) until I started grad school, so I’m very familiar with having kids and working full time.
I hope you have a nice week and still enjoy my site.
Thank you!
You don’t need to explain anything to her! Keep being amazing!
Thank you, Alicia! You can’t please everyone.
Hi,
Can you do some recipes for salads without meat in them?
Thank you
Hi Mary!
I actually have a few salads without meat:
https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2015/06/creamy-roasted-tomato-pasta-salad.html
https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2015/05/chipotle-ranch-potato-salad.html
https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2015/03/sesame-cucumber-salad.html
https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2014/07/roasted-bell-pepper-garlic-pasta-salad-food-fight.html
https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2014/06/parmesan-dill-potato-salad.html
https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2014/05/strawberry-broccoli-salad.html
https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2013/07/cool-cucumber-broccoli-salad.html
I hope this helps!
Wow! This salad is so mouthwatering! I’m loving all the flavors it has in it. It’s very yummy and very Italian. I love the salami. The salad looks healthy and very delicious!
I always love your pasta salad recipes and this Italian tortellini salad combines the best flavors! Thanks for including a link to my tortellini salad too!