Tortellini Caprese Salad

If you like easy pasta salad recipes, you’re going to love this Tortellini Caprese Salad recipe! It's simple, easy and delicious! You'll find yourself making over and over again. Perfect especially for summer bbqs, picnics and holidays like 4th of July, Memorial Day and Father's Day!

Course Main Course, Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine American, Italian

Diet Vegetarian

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 3

Resting/Cooling 1 5

Total Time 1 13

Servings people

Calories 413kcal

Author Mara

Ingredients

20 ounces cheese tortellini
12 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese balls
2 cups cherry tomatoes
⅓ cup olive oil
½ cup fresh basil
balsamic glaze
salt season to taste, plus more for salting pasta water
chili flakes optional
freshly ground pepper season to taste

Instructions

Carefully read the directions for cooking the cheese tortellini. Cook as directed EXCEPT cut the cooking time by ¾. So if it says to cook the tortellini for 4 minutes, you cook it for 3 minutes instead.
After cooking the tortellini, drain the tortellini in a colander and run pasta until cold water to stop the cooking process. Set the tortellini off to the side to cool.
While the pasta cools, wash, dry and slice cherry tomatoes in half.
In a large bowl, add cheese tortellini, tomatoes, mozzarella and olive oil.
Mix the pasta salad together. Set in the fridge for at least an hour.
Toss pasta salad again. Taste and adjust seasoning (salt, pepper, and/or crushed red pepper). Serve with basil and balsamic glaze.

Notes

Don't Cook Your Pasta Completely! I found that cooking your pasta for the full recommended time results in a mushy pasta that will fall apart otherwise. You want it pretty al date with a little bite. I found that cooking my pasta ¾ of the recommend time has achieved that result. So, for pasta with a recommended cooking time of 4 minutes, I would only cook it for 3 minutes.
Rinse, rinse, and rinse: After your pasta has finished cooking, immediately remove from heat, drain in a colander and rinse with cold water. This stops the pasta from overcooking.
Check the seasoning!: The flavor of pasta salad changes when cold. Make sure to toss the pasta salad after refrigerating to evenly redistribute and taste, re-seasoning before serving.

Nutritional information for this recipe is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. Please calculate your own nutritional information if you want it exact to what you make and use my calculations as a guide only.

Nutrition