Cooking with David Maciel
Sponsored by Ray’s Food Place, Furber Plaza
As the weather warms up, I like to make cold salads for outdoor dining with grilled meats. This tortellini pasta salad can be lots of fun. Use your imagination on adding ingredients. Just don’t forget to leave room for the tortellini.
Ingredients
- 1 – 20 oz. bag refrigerated cheese tortellini
1 – cucumber peeled, sliced and quartered
1 – pint cherry tomatoes halved
1 – 6 oz.can black olives drained and halved
1 – orange bell pepper chopped
2 tablespoons chopped pepperoncini
8 oz. fresh mozzarella balls quartered
8 oz. sliced salami chopped
Optional: feta cheese, Parmesan, parsley
1 bottle of your favorite Italian dressing
Instructions
Cook tortellini in salted water according to package directions. Rinse with cool water, drain and add to a large serving bowl. Pour half of the dressing over the warm pasta and toss to combine. Add the remaining salad ingredients to the tortellini.
If serving within the hour: toss with desired amount of remaining dressing. Although you can serve salad immediately, I highly recommend refrigerating for at least 30 minutes for the flavors to meld, and salad to chill.
If serving later: Gently toss ingredients to combine but do NOT add remaining dressing yet. Cover and refrigerate. When you are ready to serve, toss with the desired amount of the remaining dressing. This salad is excellent the next day.
