Tortellini Pasta Salad

Tortellini pasta salad

 

Beautiful, flavorful and best when made the day before.

 

This pasta salad is seriously missing nothing.  It's full of great ingredients that I almost always have on hand. It's a breeze to throw together and so convenient to be able to make the day before!

 

 

 

*Now when I made this, I did it for a huge crowd. Feel free to cut everything in half if it's just for your family.

 

Two bags of tortellini pasta

On the package, it says to boil for 6-7 minutes. I seriously boiled for maybe 2 minutes because I knew it would be sitting in the fridge overnight and would absorb liquid. Nobody likes a limp noodle. ;)

Drain pasta and immediately rinse with cool water so it quits cooking. Again, mushy pasta is gross.

 

2 cups of cubed, fresh mozzarella

1 cup halved, black olives. I'm sure green olives would be delicious also

2 cups halved grape tomatoes. (I had tomatoes from the garden so I used those instead, although grape tomatoes would probably be prettier).

1 jar of roughly chopped artichoke hearts

big handful of sliced green onions

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Salt, pepper (don't skimp)

 

Place the pasta and all of the above ingredients in a large bowl.

 

Put 2 cups olive oil and about 3 HEAPING spoonful's of pesto in a mason jar. Shake it up.

You can use a store bought pesto or make your own, it's delicious both ways.

*I REALLY like basil and wanted more of that flavor then the pesto offers, plus I have oodles of it in my garden, so I rough chopped about 1/4 of a cup and added it in. Plus some to garnish, of course.

 

Toss together the Pasta mixture and the EVOO mixture.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight if you wish.

*You may need to add a little more olive oil prior to serving it. Like I said, that Pasta will continue to absorb.

*Before serving, sprinkle with parmesan and top with sliced tomatoes if you want.

 

 

 

 



And lets bring it in for a close up

 

MMMMMMMMM!

 

Posted by Cambria