Antipasto Tortellini Salad
Making a flavorful Antipasto Tortellini Salad is very easy to make and has a colorful presentation. This turns the Antipasto appetizer into the more filling main traditional course of the Italian Antipasto Tortellini Salad Recipe. See it listed in our Italian Cuisine, Salads, and Pasta categories. Also, try my related 3-Cheese Tortellini Pasta Salad.
Antipasto Tortellini Salad Recipe
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Ingredients
- 2 cups tortellini pasta tri-color or regular
- 10 ozs hard salami slices cut into small squares
- 6 oz pepperoni slices cut in half
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 4 ozs olives black, green, or mixed: drained & sliced
- 8 ozs mozzarella pearls or cubed
- ½ cup red onion diced
- ¾ cup Zesty Italian Dressing
Instructions
- Add dry pasta to pot and cover well with water. Bring to a boil and reduce to low boil for 10 minutes. Drain cooked pasta and cool down rapidly using ice and water.2 cups tortellini pasta
- Prep or cut up veggies, meats, and cheese. Add to large bowl and mix up thoroughly.10 ozs hard salami, 6 oz pepperoni slices, 1 cup cherry tomatoes, 4 ozs olives, 8 ozs mozzarella pearls, ½ cup red onion
- Add pasta into ingredients bowl and combine thoroughly.
- Pour in dressing and mix to coat everything well.¾ cup Zesty Italian Dressing
- Store in fridge or serve now if pasta was cooled down well.
Nutrition
Ingredients of Antipasto Salad with Pasta
The ingredients of antipasto salad with pasta involve the following:
- Meats for Antipasto Pasta Salad: hard salami, pepperoni slices
- Veggies for Antipasto Pasta Salad: cherry tomatoes (aka grape tomatoes), black olives (or green olives or both), and red onion
- Cheese for Antipasto Salad with Pasta: Mozzarella cheese is usually Mozzarella Pearls but it can be regular Mozzarella cheese cut into cubes. As a last restore, it could be shredded but most don’t use that type of cut.
- The Pasta used in this Antipasto Salad is tri-color tortellini pasta. You can, however, use regular tortellini pasta or other type of short cut noodle. As a last resort, elbow macaroni will work in a pinch.
Dressing for Antipasto Pasta Salad
Antipasto Pasta Salad uses Zesty Italian dressing or regular Italian dressing. I’ve tried all the brands and I prefer Ken’s Italian dressings. It does get absorbed so, you might have to add a bit more if serving as a leftover from the fridge the next day. Also, here’s a super, great recipe for homemade Zesty Italian dressing if you want it instead of the store bought kind.
How To Make Antipasto Tortellini Salad
There are basically 2 phases to make antipasto tortellini salad. You cook the pasta and you cutup the remaining ingredients. However, the sequence of steps is very important and this will make it the most efficient use of your time.
- Get the tortellini pasta boiling. Since it takes 10 minutes, proceed to prep the other ingredients.
- Drain and add the sliced olives to a large mixing bowl.
- Cutup the salami and pepperoni into small squares and add them into the bowl.
- Slice the grape tomatoes (aka cherry tomatoes) in half, chop up the red onion portion, and dump them in also.
- Break apart the mozzarella pearls and add into the mixing bowl.
- Stir up all the items together.
- At some point, the pasta is cooked so, you drain it and cool it down well using a bunch of ice and running water.
- Stir in the pasta into the ingredients bowl and mix them all up well.
- Pour in the Italian dressing and stir to coat everything.
- If the pasta was cooled down earlier with the ice, it’s ready to serve. However, it’s best if you let the flavors meld for an hour in the fridge.
Storing Antipasto Tortellini Salad
I store antipasto tortellini salad with pasta in the fridge for about up to 5-7 days. However, I’ve found it absorbs the dressing so, I do have to add a little for each serving past the first day. Also, the tomatoes don’t last well past the 3rd day.
Regarding freezing it, you can but the tomatoes won’t do well so, I remove them before freezing. I keep some fresh grape tomatoes for simple slicing and adding them into it when serving again.
Healthy Nutritional Values of Rainbow Antipasto Pasta Salad
Below are the nutritional values of this healthy & hearty tri-color antipasto pasta salad. Also, check out this vegetarian tortellini pasta salad recipe by A Pinch of Healthy.
What To Serve With Antipasto Pasta Salad
When serving this antipasto pasta salad as the main course, there are some great ideas that do well with it. For example, you can top it with some croutons. Also, perfect is some garlic bread or crostini.
Perfect sides are a hot dish like tomato soup or clear celery soup. However, the best of all is some Italian bread slices along with seasoned Olive Oil Dip for Bread.
FAQ on Italian Antipasto Pasta Salad
Does Antipasto Have Pasta In It?
Antipasto, which is an appetizer itself, does not have pasta. Adding pasta into antipasto is what makes this changed into a main course instead of an appetizer. Also, the pieces of antipasto are cut smaller so they’re more salad friendly.
What is the Difference Between Antipasto and Antipasti and Antipasta?
Antipasto refers to a single meaning of “appetizer”. Antipasti refers to plural for “appetizers”. That’s it. There are plenty of etymologists available who will argue on specifics and differences but that’s their meanings overall.
Regarding the word “antipasta”, there’s no such word in the etymologists’ world. However, it comes from people (non-Italian foreigners) who mistook hearing the words “antipasto” and “antipasti” and assumed the word “pasta” was heard as part of it. With that said, the word “ain’t” used to not be a recognized word but, it was so widely used, it was added to the English dictionary. So, on that note, the word “antipasta” ain’t listed in the English dictionary.
Conclusion of Antipasto Tortellini Salad
You’ve now seen how to make a very filling Antipasto Tortellini Salad. And, you’ve seen how to make it in two easy phases, one to cook the pasta and one to cutup the meats and veggies. You also learned it just a matter of mixing together the cooked tortellini pasta with the cutup meats, veggies, and the mozzarella pearls. It’s finished with some Zesty Italian dressing and ready to serve.
Finally, you saw some great optional sides for it as well as how it stores well in the fridge for a good length of time. Share how yours went and tell me about any changes you tried that you liked!