Tortellini Salad is an easy Italian pasta salad full of flavor! Cheese tortellini, black olives, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni in a homemade Italian dressing.

Pasta Salad is one of the quickest and easiest side dishes to make for summer potlucks and cookouts. Try out more quick and easy Salad Recipes all summer long.

There are two kinds of people at the cookout – the pasta salad people and the Potato Salad people. Until now that is! A delicious Italian trio of cheese tortellini, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese tossed in Italian dressing, this cold pasta salad will convert the most die- hard Potato salad fans.

This simple and easy Tortellini Pasta Salad is like an antipasto salad and pasta dish all in one. Tortellini Salad comes together in just minutes, the longest part of the prep is waiting for your pasta to cook. For faster cooking tortellini, get the refrigerated kind instead of the dry or frozen pasta.

Cold pasta salads like this Tortellini Salad are the best side dishes to make ahead! Chilling your pasta salad in the refrigerator for a few hours (or overnight) before serving lets the tortellini pasta soak up all the wonderful Italian flavors.

Tortellini Salad is perfect for picnics and outdoor potlucks. Just pop it into an ice chest until you are ready to serve. This pasta salad recipe can easily be doubled to feed a big crowd. If you make too much, the leftovers will stay good in the fridge for almost a week.

This Tortellini Pasta Salad can be altered in so many ways to make it exactly how you like it. From the type of pasta and Italian dressing ingredients to the veggies and cheese, the possibilities are endless. Check out the many suggestions in this post to spark some ideas!

Serve Tortellini Salad with your favorite barbecue main dishes like Grilled Chicken or Pork Chops. For a light summer lunch serve this salad with a cup of Tomato Bisque. Garnish Tortellini Pasta Salad with cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, and Parmesan cheese.

EASY MAIN DISHES TO SERVE WITH TORTELLINI SALAD

VARIATIONS ON TORTELLINI SALAD

Jarred Veggies: Add jarred antipasto veggies to this dish like artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, or pepperoncini.
Fresh Veggies: Dice up veggies like grape tomatoes, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, red onion, and spinach for this pasta salad.
Meat: Instead of mini pepperonis, try diced salami, cooked Italian sausage, or leftover Baked Ham or Chicken Breast.
Cheese: Use different Mediterranean or Italian cheeses like feta cheese, goat cheese, fresh mozzarella cheese, or shredded parmesan cheese.
Italian Seasonings: Use fresh herbs and spices instead of Italian seasoning. Try fresh basil, thyme, oregano, and minced garlic as dressing ingredients.
Salad Dressing: Substitute Fresh Basil Pesto, Caesar dressing, bottled Italian dressing, or this Olive Garden Italian Dressing copycat. You could also substitute red wine vinegar for balsamic vinegar in the salad dressing.
Pasta: You can use other pasta salad favorites like rotini, penne, or elbow macaroni in this recipe. If you aren’t big on pasta, try cannellini beans or garbanzo beans instead.

MORE EASY PASTA SALAD RECIPES

HOW TO STORE TORTELLINI SALAD

Serve: You can keep Tortellini Salad at room temperature for up to 2 hours before it needs to be stored.
Store: Place Tortellini Salad in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 5 days.
Freeze: You should not freeze Tortellini Salad, the salad ingredients will not thaw well and will become mushy.

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Ingredients

▢ 16 ounces refrigerated cheese tortellini
▢ 4 ounces mini pepperoni
▢ 1/4 cup sliced black olives
▢ 8 ounces mozzarella cheese , diced
▢ 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
▢ 1/4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
▢ 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
▢ 1 teaspoon kosher salt
▢ 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

Instructions

Cook the tortellini according to the instructions, drain, rinse with cold water.
In a large bowl, combine tortellini pasta with the pepperoni, black olives and mozzarella cheese.
Whisk together the oil, vinegar, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper and toss well with the tortellini salad ingredients
Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.