Pesto Tortellini Salad with White Beans and Tomatoes
on Jun 27, 2025
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This pesto tortellini salad is an exciting and easy recipe for potlucks, picnics and other summer gatherings. It has white beans, fresh cherry tomatoes, toasted pine nuts and baby spinach. Full of bold and zesty Mediterranean flavor, you can serve this pasta salad as a vegetarian main dish or side.
Also, try this classic Italian pasta salad recipe.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This salad is the best of a pasta salad and a bean salad in a single dish. Both summer classics, this one is a hearty, big salad with an interesting combination of ingredients.
With store-bought tortellini, you have a homemade salad that doesn’t start completely from scratch. No matter what filling you choose, you automatically have more flavor than you would with plain pasta.
Pasta salads are crowd-pleasers that are great for sharing. This recipe works as a side dish or main dish. Pesto makes so much sense with tortellini, fresh tomatoes and white beans.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Tortellini is available in different types like cheese or spinach. I prefer refrigerated fresh cheese tortellini, but you can also buy dried tortellini in the pasta section at the grocery or frozen tortellini.
- White beans: Cannellini beans, great northern beans or navy beans will all work. It is up to you whether you prefer bigger, more plump beans or smaller ones that will end up in more forkfuls.
- Tomatoes: You can use grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. What I like about these smaller varieties is that when you cut them in half, they hold onto their juices and seeds unlike if you dice larger tomatoes.
- Red onions are my favorite pasta salad onion. They are sharp and crisp, contrasting with the soft tortellini and beans.
- Pine nuts: Make sure to toast the nuts for 5-7 minutes until golden brown in a 350-degrees F oven. This really brings out their nutty flavor. If you’re looking for a less expensive option, then substitute with chopped walnuts.
- Baby spinach: I love adding leafy greens to pasta salads. Here I use spinach, but you can swap with baby arugula or use a combination of both. If you want a heartier meal, you can use baby kale.
- Basil pesto: It has all the ingredients you would expect including fresh basil leaves, garlic, pine nuts, parmesan, extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt and black pepper plus fresh lemon juice. That bright citrus flavor is very important to take this from pasta to pasta salad
Homemade Pesto vs. Store-Bought Pesto
With a food processor or blender, it is easy to make you own pesto. I understand if you are looking for a shortcut, so there are 2 kinds of pesto you can buy:
- Jarred pesto: This shelf-stable store-bought pesto sauce has a more cooked flavor.
- Refrigerated pesto: You can usually find it with the refrigerated pasta. This pesto will have fresh flavor that’s great for salads.
If you do buy pesto, you can squeeze in lemon juice for citrus flavor. You will need about 1/2 to 3/4 cup pesto.
Recipe Variations and Optional Additions
- Use sun-dried tomatoes. If it isn’t fresh tomato season, toss sun dried tomatoes into the salad. They have so much bold taste. You will need about 1 cup roughly chopped sun dried tomatoes.
- Add a protein. If you don’t need the salad to be vegetarian, you can mix in chopped grilled chicken or rotisserie chicken. To make it an antipasti pasta salad, include salami or another cured meat.
- Add cheese. Crumbled feta or torn fresh mozzarella are both great options if you want something more than parmesan.
How To Make This Pesto Tortellini Salad Recipe
1. Prepare the pesto. Use a food processor to chop the garlic cloves, basil, pine nuts, parmesan, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Switch on the motor again and slowly pour the oil through the feeder tube. Then the pesto will quickly come together.
2. Cook the tortellini in a pot of salted boiling water. Let it simmer for 1 minute less than the recommended cook time on the package. The tortellini should turn out on very al dente side of cooked. Pasta salad can get soggy in dressing, so it helps to start with it more toothy. Rinse the cooked pasta with cold water in a colander.
3. Combine the salad ingredients: tortellini, tomatoes, white beans, red onions and pine nuts in a big bowl. Toss to combine with the pesto.
4. Stir in the spinach. I wait to add the greens, so they are lightly dressed in the pesto. Sprinkle the pesto tortellini salad with more grated parmesan cheese as you plate it.
Serving
You can serve the tortellini pasta salad as a side dish or a main dish. It is great for get-togethers like potlucks and barbecues with foods with Italian or Mediterranean flavors. You can pair it with with grilled vegetables skewers, grilled halloumi and veggies or baked zucchini corn fritters.
Leftovers & Storage
Pasta salad is best eaten the day it is made. You can prep the pesto up to 3 days in advance. Store it in a jar in the fridge. Let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, so the oil has time to turn to liquid again.
You can keep leftover tortellini in an airtight container in the fridge up to 3 days. Keep in mind that the longer it sits, the more the pasta will soften. Stir in fresh spinach in before you eat the leftover salad.
Recipe Tips
- Don’t overcook the tortellini. This is why I cook tortellini 1 minute less than the package directions. You want it to be just al dente. Also, don’t cook the tortellini in advance, so it has the best texture and bite.
- Stir fresh spinach into pasta salad leftovers. Like any salad, when lettuce is tossed in the dressing, it wilts in the chill of the refrigerator, so I add another handful of spinach.
- Check the seasonings. Cold pasta salad requires more salt and pepper than when you serve pasta warm. Taste the salad before serving it to see if it needs more salt and pepper.
More Pasta Salad Recipes
Strawberry Cucumber Pasta Salad
Sun Dried Tomato Tortellini Salad
Arugula Pasta Salad
Roasted Tomato Pasta Salad
Bow Tie Pasta Salad
Southwest Pasta Salad
Roasted Veggie Chickpea Pasta Salad
Roasted Broccolini Zucchini Pasta Salad
Grilled Vegetable Orzo Salad
Looking for more salad inspiration? Check out my seasonal salad guide with recipes and tips on ingredients, meal prep and more.
Pesto Tortellini Salad with White Beans and Tomatoes
Ingredients
For pesto
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 cup packed basil leaves
- 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan plus more for serving
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 lemon, juice
- 1/3 cup olive oil
For salad
- 9 ounce package fresh tortellini
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes, halved
- 15 ounce can white beans (cannellini, great northern or navy beans)
- 1/4 cup finely chopped red onions
- 2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
- 2 cups baby spinach
Instructions
- To make the pesto, finely chop the garlic, basil, 1/4 cup pine nuts, parmesan, salt, pepper and lemon juice. With the motor running, drizzle the olive oil through the feeder tube and process until combined.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the tortellini 1 minute less than package instructions, so it is very al dente. Drain the pasta in a colander and rinse with cold water
- Combine the tortellini, tomatoes, white beans, red onions and 2 tablespoons pine nuts in a large bowl and stir in the pesto.
- Fold in the baby spinach and sprinkle with grated parmesan before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
