Cheese Tortellini Pasta Salad

Best Pasta Salad. Tortellini, tomatoes, broccoli onions.

This Cheese Tortellini Pasta Salad could possibly be the best pasta salad ever. Really! It's that good. A wonderful pot luck, crowd pleasing pasta salad with bacon, broccoli and cheese tortellini. With cherry tomatoes and a creamy unique dressing, this one is worth a look.

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 5

Servings

Calories 3656kcal

Author Lea Ann Brown

Ingredients

19 ounce package Cheese tortellini Package sized vary from 19 - 20 ounces.
1 pound Thick cut bacon chopped and fried until crispy, grease drained.
4 cups broccoli cut small into florets
1 pint grape tomatoes halved
3 green onions sliced
1 cup Coleslaw dressing bottled.

Instructions

Cook The Bacon: Cut the bacon into small squares and cook until golden and starting to crisp. This will take about 15 minutes if using a good quality thick cut bacon.
Cook the cheese tortellini according to package instructions and drain well. Place the tortellini in a large bowl and add bacon bits, broccoli florets, cherry tomatoes, green onions, and coleslaw dressing.
Using a large spoon, gently stir until well combined. To stir, it’s better to dig under the ingredients with the spoon and gently fold over several times. Remember, the cooked cheese tortellini is delicate and you don’t want to break them open.

Notes

Tortellini: I have used both Buitoni and Rani brand refrigerated cheese tortellini. Both work well for this recipe. I have also used a frozen brand, which can be harder to find.
Be careful not to over-cook the tortellini. If the pasta shells get too soft, they’re more likely to fall apart when you stir in the ingredients. I recommend cooking the tortellini 30 seconds less than instructed time for al dente.
Pasta salads like this one always taste better the next day. But pasta is notorious for absorbing more sauce once it sits for awhile. Simply stir in some more coleslaw dressing or even a drizzle of milk if needed.

*please note, I believe the calorie calculator is not taking into consideration that the bacon has been cooked and drained. Therefore a very large calorie and fat content is being registered.

Nutrition