Tortellini Pasta Salad
on Jul 03, 2023, Updated May 15, 2026
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Tossed in pesto vinaigrette, this tortellini pasta salad has sun dried tomatoes, olives and baby spinach. Enjoy this easy salad as a dinner side dish or a vegetarian main. It’s ready in 15 minutes.
Table of Contents
Why You Need This Recipe
This is a simple pasta salad makes the most of antipasti. Sun dried tomatoes and olives are ingredients that have lots of flavor straight from the jar. I keep a stash of them in my pantry/fridge for an instant head start for recipes like this sun dried tomato pasta and this antipasto spaghetti.
Store-bought refrigerated pasta always is a winner. This tasty time-saver is great for filled pasta shapes like tortellini and ravioli.
Pasta salads are fantastic for potlucks. It’s always great to have vegetarian options. You can serve this any time no matter the season. This is another reason why I’m a big fan of antipasti.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Tortellini: You can use cheese tortellini, spinach or something else. I prefer refrigerated fresh tortellini, but you can use frozen or shelf-stable pasta.
- Sun dried tomatoes: I buy sun dried tomatoes that come packed in oil because they are hydrated, plump and ready. Use a fork to take them out of the jar, leaving the oil behind, and then chop them.
- Olives: A pitted olive mix with Kalamata olives and different kinds of green olives is best.
- Baby spinach: You can substitute with baby arugula or include a mix of both. If you want more greens than pasta, you can add more lettuce.
- Red onions: I thinly slice half a small red onion. This adds a sharp accent throughout this Italian pasta salad.
- Pine nuts: To bring out their nutty flavor, toast the pine nuts on a sheet pan for 5 minutes at 350 degrees F. Chopped walnuts are a good substitute.
- Parmesan cheese: Even though the tortellini are filled with cheese, I still toss grated parmesan with all the salad ingredients.
- Parsley: For fresh herbs, parsley is a great choice especially if you think you’re going to end up with leftovers. You can also use basil, but it is more delicate.
- Pesto vinaigrette: Besides basil pesto, the dressing has dried oregano, red pepper flakes, kosher salt, black pepper, red wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.
Variations
During summer, you can switch to fresh ingredients. Change to halved cherry tomatoes and add chopped red bell peppers, diced cucumbers and torn fresh mozzarella or crumbled feta cheese. I would still include olives because they are a nice salty accent.
Add a chicken or cured meats. If you don’t need the salad to be vegetarian, you can mix in chopped grilled chicken or roasted chicken. Or make it an antipasti pasta salad and include salami.
How To Make This Tortellini Pasta Salad Recipe
1. Cook the tortellini in a pot of salted boiling water. Read the recommended cook time on the package and subtract a minute, so it ends up on the very al dente side of cooked. Pasta in pasta salads tends to get soggy, so it’s best to start with it being more toothy. Transfer it to a colander to drain it and rinse it with cold water.
2. Combine the salad ingredients. That includes the tortellini, sun dried tomatoes, olives, spinach, pine nuts, Parmesan and parsley.
3. Make the vinaigrette. Whisk the pesto, oregano, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, vinegar and olive oil in a bowl
4. Stir the vinaigrette into the pasta salad.
Serving
Pair this pasta salad with dishes with Italian and Mediterranean ingredients. In the summer, I love this salad with these grilled vegetable ciabatta sandwiches, this roasted eggplant casserole, or these oven-baked zucchini corn fritters.
More Pasta Salad Recipes
Roasted Veggie Chickpea Pasta Salad
Roasted Tomato Pesto Pasta Salad
Broccolini Zucchini Pasta Salad
Bow Tie Pasta Salad
Pesto Tortellini Salad with White Beans
This salad is part of my guide to easy salad recipes for every season featuring fresh ideas for all year long. If you want more vegetarian dinner ideas, check out my seasonal pasta recipe roundup.
Tortellini Pasta Salad
Ingredients
For pasta salad
- 1 pound refrigerated tortellini
- 1 cup roughly chopped sun dried tomatoes, oil drained
- 1 cup halved pitted olive mix
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
- 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
For vinaigrette
- 3 tablespoons basil pesto
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
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Instructions
- Cook the tortellini in salted boiling water 1 minute less than the recommended cook time on package instructions. Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water.
- Combine the tortellini, sun dried tomatoes, olives, spinach, pine nuts, parsley and parmesan in a large bowl.
- For the vinaigrette, whisk together the pesto, oregano, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, vinegar and olive oil in a small bowl.
- Drizzle the vinaigrette into the salad. Toss to combine.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This Tortellini salad is fantastic! I have lots of recipes that I tweak to get the flavor the way I want it. I followed this one as written and didn’t need to change a thing! It is now my go to for this type of dish. Everyone loved it!