Tortellini Party Salad
This Tortellini Party Salad — full of fresh mozzarella, crisp cucumbers, juicy tomatoes, and, of course, creamy cheese-filled tortellini — is one of my all-time favorite recipes for family get-togethers. In spite of being insanely fast and easy to throw together, it has a certain sophistication over your average potluck pasta salad recipe. This is owing in part, I think, to the distinct lack of mayonnaise, and, perhaps, to the perceived value of a cheesy, stuffed pasta over your everyday sort.
At any rate, it’s a great favorite with young and old alike – and anyone who’s ever dragged young Junior along to the family reunion potluck on a hot afternoon knows how stressful it can be to find something the “littles” can fill up on without complaint before turning them loose on the dessert table. Indeed, the ease of identifying its component ingredients may be equally comforting to any adults who’ve ever hovered in polite indecision over whether or not to worry about those murky, indeterminate dark shapes now suspended in perpetual slumber in Grandma’s jello mold, or Aunt Mabel’s frighteningly vaguely-monikered “Hot Dish”.
Don’t Be Afraid To Go Big!
If the ingredients in this recipe look familiar, you’ve probably seen them lurking in their mammoth containers in the aisles of your friendly, neighborhood Costco. Feel free to adjust the ingredient amounts down to accommodate the package sizes from your traditional grocery store.
However, while this recipe for Tortellini Party Salad does make a rather larger salad (i.e. washtub), it also has the advantage over it’s creamy brethren of keeping extremely well in the fridge. I often make up a batch just for our family – we’ll eat it with several dinners, and devour the rest as elevensies, impromptu lunches, afternoon snacks, and midnight snacks over the course of the week; anyone with teenagers in the house will understand.
It also works well for taking along on a camping trip to go along with the grilled hot dog or burger du jour, looking especially smug next to the inevitable and overly-sweet commercial tub of macaroni or potato salad that your camping buddies brought.
Another great application for this Tortellini Party Salad would be as a recipe that can be divided up and gifted as good deeds amongst a number of elderly singles or couples of one’s acquaintance, or in one’s congregation, with the added bonus of having enough left over for yourself to enjoy. I suppose one could always cut the recipe in half, if one has already reached their good deed quota for the week. Chopped Italian salami, or largish cooked and peeled shrimp could also be added to make it a bit more main-dishish, but I, myself, think it is just perfect as is.
Tortellini Party Salad
Ingredients
- 48 oz fresh cheese tortellini refrigerated
- 40 oz fresh mozzarella balls (1" or smaller) in olive oil
- 2 cans (6 oz) whole black olives
- 2 English cucumbers chopped
- 2 lbs cherry or grape tomatoes
- 1 red onion diced or slivered
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 12 oz LiteHouse brand Pear Gorgonzola vinaigrette or your favorite Italian-style dressing
- Fresh grated parmesan cheese optional
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Cook tortellini in salted water for no more than 2 minutes. Drain and drizzle with some of the olive oil from the mozzarella package. Set aside to cool.
- In a very large salad bowl, combine mozzarella, olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, and bell pepper. Add cooled pasta and stir to combine. Add dressing + 1/2 c olive oil from mozzarella package and toss to coat. Salt to taste. Top with fresh parmesan, if desired.
- Reserve additional olive oil from mozzarella to freshen salad with later as it continues to absorb the dressing, if desired.