Crispy tortellini pasta salad

The next time you make pasta salad, I strongly encourage you to pan fry the pasta. The added texture and crispiness up-levels the dish in an easy and quick way.

Pan fried three cheese tortellini, or four cheese if you can find it, is reminiscent of pan fried gnocchi. Little crispy pillows of goodness with a soft center and golden exterior, ready to accompany any sauce or flavourings you throw at it. Just drop in salted boiling water for 1 minute then straight into a hot pan with oil to begin crisping.

The base of the salad is the pizza salad I posted almost a year ago now. The pizza salad didn’t have a dressing and that was the beauty of it.

It features garlic-y beans cooked in plenty of olive oil, massaged kale, roasted cherry tomatoes in chilli honey and oregano pickled onions. The aromas and the flavour of that salad really brought about pizza vibes, even though I know those ingredients wouldn’t really make up a pizza, per say.

My claim to fame is that the pizza salad was featured on The Drew Barrymore Show, where they played my video and made the recipe! So fun.

Makes a large salad, approximately 8-10 servings.

Ingredients:

Crispy tortellini:

1 packet three cheese tortellini, approximately 300g

1/2 tbsp olive oil

Chilli honey tomatoes:

1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes

1 tbsp honey, use chilli honey if you can

pinch of salt

black pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

Garlic cannelini beans:

1 can cannelini beans, rinsed and drained

2 garlic cloves, sliced

1 tsp whole grain mustard, use honey mustard if you can

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp oregano, dried

2 bay leaves

1/3 cup olive oil

Pickled onions:

1/4 red onion

1/2 tsp oregano, dried

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Massaged kale:

2 cups shredded raw kale, de-stemmed

2 tsp olive oil

pinch of salt

Other:

1 cup cherry bocconcini, halved

1 cup kalamata olives, pitted

1/2 cup basil leaves

Method:

Prepare the pickled onions by slicing the onions thin and adding to a bowl with oregano and vinegar. Toss to combine and set aside to do it’s thing.

Bring to a boil a large pot of salted water and at the same time, bring a large pan to high heat. Once at a rapid boil, drop in tortellini and cook for one minute. Immediately add drained tortellini to the hot pan with oil. Make sure the tortellini isn’t too crowded, they should have some room from one another to get crispy. Pan fry on both sides for a few minutes each, then transfer and spread on a plate to cool.

In the same pan, add all the ingredients for the cherry tomatoes and allow to sear all over for a few minutes. Once jammy, set aside to cool in a small bowl.

Turn down the heat to medium- low and add all ingredients for the cannellini beans. Stir to combine and allow to fry for a few minutes, or until the garlic has turned a light golden colour. Remove the bay leaves and set the beans aside to cool in a bowl.

Prepare the kale by de-stemming the leaves from the stem, slicing super thin, drizzling in oil and sprinkling salt, then massaging with your hands for 1-2 minutes or until you can tell the kale has softened.

Slice the cherry bocconcini in halves, or keep whole. Same with the olives. I like to slice the mozzarella in half but keep the olives whole. Tear basil leaves from the stem and prepare for garnish.

In a large bowl, combine all your pasta salad components! Start with crispy tortellini, beans, cherry tomatoes, kale, bocconcini and olives. Garnish with pickled onions (adding the vinegar in too) and basil.

Toss to combine. Enjoy on it’s own or alongside BBQ chicken, corn or grilled veggies.