Recipe: Pesto Tortellini Salad

This is for my dear friend Audrey (It was so good to see you this week and hog your new baby boy! Love you & miss you!) who requested a new recipe. So, here it is, Audge: My favorite summer salad!

You'll need:

- 1 package/bag of tortellini
- 8 ounces basil pesto
- A handful of sun dried tomatoes or 2 quartered & sliced Roma tomatoes
- 2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach
- 2-4 tbs Olive Oil (depending on how moist you want it to be)
- Garlic salt
- Pepper

Boil the tortellini in chicken broth or water & a couple of bullion cubes. This gives dried pasta a much needed flavor boost! Drain & cool (running cold water over it, drizzling with some olive oil & tossing) and combine with tomatoes and pesto (to taste - some are stronger than others, but I easily use 8-12 ounces because I love it...and I mean eat-it-with-a-spoon LOVE IT!). I find that the salad is better after a night in the fridge, but as long as you have a few hours for it to chill, you'll be fine. Just before serving, throw in the spinach and add more garlic salt or pepper if you need to - also, drizzle some olive oil over the top, as the oil in the pesto has probably been absorbed into the pasta by now.


I haven't ever taken a picture of it, so I tried to find something on the internet that looked similar ;-) If you don't like the idea of greens in your pasta salad, you can leave the spinach out. But I promise, it's REALLY good!

Also, here is the Basil Pesto recipe I use. It's probably easiest if you have a small food processor at your disposal, but it can be done without one. I know this from experience, because for the first 3 years of my marriage I made pesto like an Italian Nonna - using one big knife and my two little hands. While this process is LONG and a little painful, it keeps the ingredients from becoming a smooshy, homogeneous paste. It's a little chunkier, making the flavors more pronounced.

- 1 large bunch of basil, leaves only, washed and dried
- 3 medium cloves of garlic
- 1 handful of raw pine nuts
- 3/4 cup Parmesan, loosely packed and freshly grated
- 2-4 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil


I described this process to my mom a couple of months ago and she bought me a food processor the very next day. I don't think I explained it very well! Maybe I wasn't smiling? Using a large knife with a super sharp blade, begin chopping a portion of the basil. As the bits get smaller, add a few more leaves until you've integrated them all. Then add the pine nuts and chop - soon after, add the garlic as well. Then add the freshly grated parm and continue to chop until all the pieces are well mixed. Put the mixture in a bowl and add a couple tablespoons of olive oil - you're done!

Using a food processor...I don't know because I'm too intimidated to try it. So, you should probably just Google it instead of me guessing. But it can't be that hard, right? So I'm going to guess anyway. If it were me, I'd throw everything but the olive oil in and push the button! Then take it out and add the oil. I'm open to correction, of course ;-)

Do any of you try variations on pesto? Sun dried tomatoes, asparagus, etc.? I've used walnuts instead of pine nuts in a pinch, but that's as adventurous as I've been so far.