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Lemon Tree Dwelling

Pesto Tortellini Salad

Soups & Salads

Tortellini pasta with pesto, sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, and fresh-shaved Parmesan cheese. 
It’s all about great flavors!
For the longest time, I have been known among my friends as the “hostess with the mostess”. I’m not sure why, exactly….but I can tell you that I love having people over to my house and I love going all out to make sure they enjoy themselves! One of the BEST ways I know of to make sure people enjoy themselves? Serve them great food! And by great I don’t necessarily mean fancy, or difficult, or time-consuming….I mean SIMPLE food with GREAT flavors.

 
Since salads are one of my favorite kinds of food (and it’s easy to incorporate GREAT flavors into them), if you come to my house, you will probably get one…..or FIVE! Yep – when we had the girls’ birthday party this past weekend, you better believe we had FIVE different kinds of salad on the otherwise very simple menu of croissant sandwiches, potato chips, and lemonade. To be fair, I only made four of them…(my lovely neighbor offered to bring one)…and to be really fair, they were all extremely easy to make! Easy and delicious…just the way party food should be! 

The more years we do this party thing, the smarter I am getting about ONLY serving food that is hostess-friendly. No more chopping all the ingredients for fresh, homemade salsa for 40 people….no more last minute giant batches of guacamole. Who has time for that in the last remaining minutes before the party starts!? Everything I made this year can be prepared in advance, pulled out at the last minute, and left out for a while without the danger of spoilage.

One of my favorites of the day? This Pesto Tortellini Salad with pine nuts, sun dried tomatoes, red onion, and Parmesan cheese. Plenty of bold flavors that work well together….and a variety of textures so you don’t get bored! Not that you would get bored when you’re eating it at a party, but that’s beside the point.

Pesto Tortellini Salad
2 packages (19 oz. each) frozen cheese tortellini
3/4 c. sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/2 c. red onion, chopped
1/2 c. prepared pesto (or more to taste)
1 c. fresh shaved parmesan cheese

1. Prepare tortellini according to package instructions. Rinse with cold water and let cool.
2. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well.
3. Serve at room temperature.

Enjoy!
More hostess-friendly party sides coming soon….stay tuned!



Thanks for taking a peek inside my Lemon Tree Dwelling….
I hope you feel right at home!
-Cathy

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Comments

  4. What I love about your recipes is that they are for normal people. Nothing crazy, not a billion ingredients, just simple things that a regular girl like me can do! This salad looks delicious and something I can actually pull off. Bravo Hostess with the Mostess! Can’t wait to see what else you served! Oh and um, I would be one to attempt homeade salsa for 40 only to realize it’s hotter than anything and have to run to the store for reinforcements. Yup!

    Reply

  12. I love tortellini but never thought to make a salad from them. This looks great! Thank you for linking to the In and Out of the Kitchen party. I am always glad to see you there!

    I am pinning and sharing on Facebook!

    Reply

  14. I’ve been looking for a pesto recipe to make and I think my family would LOVE this recipe! Thanks for linking up to The Weekend re-Treat Link Party on The Best Blog Recipes!

    Wanted to stop by and Pin your post to my Link Party Recipes/Crafts board while I was here tonight!

    Shauna
    http://thebestblogrecipes.com/

    Reply

  18. Mmmmm this looks fantastic. The recipe doesn’t say how many pine nuts to put in. Also, do you toast them first?

    Reply

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