BBQ

Summer comes and this tortellini salad comes with it. Just ask my family.
Full of tender cheese-filled tortellini and lots of chunky vegetables, it’s held together with a brisk mustard vinaigrette and lots of thin slices of sopressata or hard salami. If I’m going to a family event or a church picnic, I make a big bowl of this salad and bring it along. In Minnesota, it goes in the cooler and makes its way up north to celebrate Joe’s and Olivia’s birthdays. The original recipe was, I think, from the COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE years ago, but it has changed quite a bit over time.

Here in Colorado, it travels up I-25 to Denver for a family afternoon by the pool after a visit to a museum.

This year, Bill made a big hunk of brisket he smoked overnight. Sean brewed some beer and I made (of course) the tortellini salad. Occasionally it morphs just a bit; originally it didn’t have many vegetables. I had to amend that. The resulting salad is fine for a whole meal, but it’s also a total one-dish side for any barbequed meat. You know how pasta salad can be pale, insipid, and less than interesting? Perhaps only filling? Easily left on the plate at picnics? That is what this pasta salad is not.

***_{Recipe doubles easily to carry along to a big cookout. Cook the pasta in two pots.}***

Print Recipe

TORTELLINI SALAD FOR OLIVIA’S BIRTHDAY

Years ago, I read a tortellini salad recipe in the newspaper. Where? When? Whose? I don’t know but this is my long-used, changed-up version. A famous Marcella Hazan quote goes something like, “If I had invented pasta salad, I’d hide.” I like to think this might be the exception.

serves 12

Ingredients

Salad:

18-20 oz. fresh cheese tortellini-find in cold case at grocery or you could also use frozen cheese tortellini
2 small zucchini, cut into ¼” half-moon pieces
1 small yellow squash or yellow zucchini, cut into ¼” half-moon pieces
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 red sweet pepper, cut into large matchstick pieces (about ½” x 2”)
1 yellow sweet pepper, cut into large matchstick pieces (about ½” x 2”)
1/4 cup minced red onion
1/4 # hard salami, cut into 1/4″ slices
1/3 cup chiffonade of basil, fresh basil cut into thin ribbons — Reserve 1 tablespoon for garnish
1/2 cup 2 oz freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese — Reserve 2 tablespoons for garnish
Cherry tomatoes for garnish–optional

Vinaigrette:

3 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Crushed red pepper.
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions

COOK TORTELLINI AND SQUASH: In 8-10 qt. stock pot, bring 5-6 quarts well-salted water to boil. Add fresh tortellini and cook about 8 min or according to package directions (Costco fresh tortellini cooks only 2 minutes.) Tip in zucchini and yellow squash for the last minute or two to just take its crispness away.
DRAIN TORTELLINI AND SQUASH: Carefully pour out the pasta and squash into a large colander. While still hot in colander, drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch each salt and pepper. Stir gently. Allow pasta and squash to cool, stirring periodically. Carefully turn pasta and squash out into a large mixing bowl.
IN THE MEANTIME, MAKE THE VINAIGRETTE: In large bowl (or food processor), whisk together red wine vinegar, garlic and Dijon mustard. Add a generous pinch each of salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper. Rest 2 minutes or so. Slowly pour in olive oil and whisk until emulsified (creamy and satiny). Taste and adjust seasonings. Set vinaigrette aside.
MIX PASTA AND SQUASH WITH REST OF INGREDIENTS + VINAIGRETTE/SERVE: To the large mixing bowl with the tortellini and squash, add sliced peppers, red onion, salami, all but 1 tablespoon fresh basil, and all but 2 tablespoons Parmigiano-Reggiano. Stir gently; tortellini can fall apart easily. Drizzle most of dressing onto salad and combine. Taste and adjust seasonings; serve at room temperature, adding a little more vinaigrette if needed. Garnish with reserved basil and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Add cherry tomatoes on top, if using. Store leftovers well-covered in the refrigerator for 3 days. Do not freeze.
TO MAKE AHEAD: This salad is best fresh but… if you must, you can make it ahead: Cook the pasta and cool, chop the vegetables, make the vinaigrette, etc., storing each part separately for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Let everything come at least near to room temperature and then mix, serve, and garnish, slicing and adding basil, as well as the tomatoes (if using) just before serving.

Notes

Sing a new song; make an old tortellini salad,
Alyce

bbq chicken pizza from the happy gnome, st. paul, minnesota

Actually, this is Alyce’s BBQ Chicken Pizza!

As a girl who loves to take pictures of food (it only started out with wanting to write about it), I don’t know how I missed being involved in Foodspotting, a website and way of life devoted to not just sharing the names of good restaurants (with our now ubiquitous and often ambiguous reviews), but to sharing the best dishes at those restaurants. Oddly enough, in the whirl around the net, I guess I had signed up on Foodspotting, but never got around to actually participating. So, in order to write my post for our group-blogging of Gourmet Live’s 50 Women Game-Changers in Food (#49, Soraya Darabi & Alexa Andrzejewski, ) this week, I had to go on the Foodspotter’s website and see what it was all about.

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