Tortellini Broccoli Salad with Creamy Balsamic Dressing
Some recipes earn their keep by being brilliant. This tortellini and broccoli salad earns its keep by being easy, making a giant bowl, and getting better while you sleep. At a July cookout, that’s the whole ballgame.
This is one of a handful of recipes I’m pulling back out of the archive drawer this summer; things I’ve cooked for years, photographed once upon a time, and somehow never gotten around to posting. The tortellini salad’s first up, because it’s the one folks ask me for most. Somebody tries it at a potluck, and within a week I’ve got a text: how do you make that salad?
Here’s why it works. Cheese tortellini gives you a pasta salad with actual substance; little cheese-filled pillows beat plain rotini every single time. (I like Buitoni mixed cheese, family size, but any 20 oz refrigerated pack works.) The broccoli goes into the same pot as the pasta for the last thirty seconds, just long enough to lose its raw squeak, then straight into cold water so it stays loud green instead of sad and army-drab. Red onion for bite, bacon because bacon, and a creamy balsamic dressing that manages tangy and rich at the same time; Greek yogurt and mayo for body, balsamic and Dijon (yes, out of the gallon) for backbone.
And the best part’s the make-ahead. It isn’t just make-ahead-friendly; it’s make-ahead-better. Build it the day before, let it sit overnight, and the dressing works its way into all of it. You show up to the cookout with a bowl that tastes like you fussed, when really you did the whole thing yesterday in your pajamas.
Y’all know I’m not going to gatekeep a good potluck salad. Let’s make it
Tortellini and Broccoli Salad with Creamy Balsamic Dressing
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 1 head broccoli cut into bite-sized florets (about 2 cups)
- 20 oz fresh packaged tortellini usually 1 family sized package
- ½ small red onion finely diced (not minced)
- 4 each strips bacon cooked crisp and crumbled or chopped
For the Dressing
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons honey to taste
- 1 garlic clove minced
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Whisk the dressing: balsamic, olive oil, yogurt, mayo, Dijon, honey, garlic, salt, and pepper Taste and adjust the honey and salt. Refrigerate while you cook.
- Boil the tortellini per package directions. In the last 30 seconds, drop the broccoli florets right into the pot with the pasta; they will turn bright green.
- Drain immediately and rinse under cold running water to stop the cooking, so neither the pasta nor the broccoli goes mushy. Drain well.
- In a large bowl, toss the tortellini, broccoli, red onion, and bacon with the dressing until everything is coated.
- Cover and chill at least 2 hours, ideally overnight, before serving.
Notes
- Better made ahead. Build it up to a day before; the flavor and texture both improve overnight.
- Keeps 3 to 4 days covered in the fridge. If it dries out as it sits, loosen with a splash of olive oil or a spoonful more yogurt.
- Fold in 2 diced cooked chicken breasts or a shredded rotisserie chicken for a one-bowl dinner.
- For a vegetarian version, skip the bacon and add some lightly toasted sunflower seeds or almond flakes or anything to give a bit of a salty crunch.
P.S. Make it the day before. I know the instinct is to make it fresh; fight it. This is a salad that does its best work on the night shift, while you’re asleep.
P.P.S. This is recipe one of a few I’m pulling back out of the archive drawer this summer. If there’s an old one you remember and miss, tell me in the comments; I may already have it queued.