This Creamy Fruit and Tortellini Salad is a total showstopper and likely to be one of the more unique dishes at your next gathering! Sweet fruit is paired with cheesy tortellini and topped in a creamy yet healthy dressing that’s sure to impress.
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Now that we’ve finally got some warm weather here in Upstate NY, I’m already feeling the itch to be outside. One of my favorite things about the warm weather, actually, are all of the picnics, parties, and barbecues that will inevitably wind up on my calendar.
Whenever I attend a party like that, I always like to bring something to contribute. Usually, it’s sweets, (are ya surprised?) but sometimes I like to switch it up a bit with some sort of salad.
Barilla is challenging Foodbuzz Featured Publishers to create a recipe with one of their tortellini for a chance to win a trip to Italy. It has always been a dream of mine to visit Italy, so when I saw this, I knew I had to take a shot. Besides, if nothing else, it’s still a good excuse to just eat tortellini.
So I started with a bag of Barilla Three Cheese Tortellini, and ended up with this:
Creamy Fruit & Tortellini Salad
I know…leave it to me to take a seemingly savory dish and sweeten it up a bit.
What can I say…I have a sweet tooth. And it’s ginormous.
But luckily, this is a recipe you don’t have to feel guilty about eating!
Creamy Fruit and Tortellini Salad
Ingredients
- 1 8oz. package three cheese tortellini, cooked and cooled
- 1 11oz. can mandarin oranges, drained
- 1 cup red grapes
- 2 kiwis peeled and sliced
- 8-10 strawberries halved
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp poppy seeds
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine cooked and cooled tortellini, mandarin oranges, grapes, kiwis, and strawberries. In a separate small bowl, mix Greek yogurt, honey, lemon juice, and poppy seeds. Add the yogurt dressing to tortellini and fruit and toss to combine. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. ENJOY!
The combination of sweet and salty is one that I’ve always enjoyed, and the addition of the sweet fruits with the salty, cheesy tortellini is so incredibly unique. The yogurt dressing is subtly sweet and tangy, and pairs so nicely with all of the other flavors, making the entire salad light and refreshing.
This would make for a perfect dish to bring to your next potluck gathering.
Or, if you’d prefer, just keep it in the house to snack on for yourself. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.
Question for the Afternoon:
What’s your favorite item to bring to a potluck/barbecue/picnic?
You HAVE to go to Italy sometime! ….and that looks delish.
Broccoli salad! It’s chopped broccoli, bacon bits, onion, mozzarella cheese and apple with a mayo-sugar dressing. It sounds strange, but I’ve never met someone who didn’t want to devour the whole thing!
No no, that’s not strange! That’s one of my favorites!!!
I love bringing salads and dessert, of course.
Your dish looks delicious, and the perfect picnic food. I hope you win!!
That looks delish!! I love to make either pasta salad or fun summer dessert.
WOW- fruit and cheese tortellini!!?!? that is a wicked creative combo!!! love it!
I like that you used yogurt, instead of something with mayo!
My fruit salsa is always a hit at potlucks, but I love to bring my no-mayo potato salad to BBQs because I’m always bummed by having to skip the super-mayo-ey prepared salads most people bring!
That looks absolutely amazing and now I am craving a big BBQ party:) I always bring the dessert too ha! Hope you are having an amazing day!
Mmmm!! My favorite dish to bring is: pasta salad! Tasty… luckily I’ve got leftovers from Easter. :D
This is the perfect recipe and sooo YOU! I hope you win :-) When do you find out? If there is a voting option, I’m there!
I like to bring deserts – cupcakes, angel food cake, etc. I like to bring the suga to the picnic. Cupcakes are my number 1 because I love them…
That is very creative and out of te box though! I’m having a babyshower soon and this would be a perfect addition to the menu! Good luck, I hope you win!
This salad looks soooo good! Such a great idea to add fruit to tortellini! yum :)
This sounds awesome. I love the idea of using tortellini for a pasta salad. It just seemse more fun that way.
My favorite thing to bring is always broccoli salad. I cant get enough of the stuff.
This looks delicious-thanks for sharing! I rarely see cooled pasta salads that look good but I’m definitely going to have to try this one sometime–I like the “sweet” part of it, too!!
Where in the grocery store do you find this pasta? (this is probably the most obvious question but I just don’t know…) Is it by the rest of the pasta or is it frozen?
It’s in with the rest of the dry pasta :)
thanks!
wow. i would never have thought to mix a fruit salad w/tortellinis! it looks good!
my favorite things to bring to bbqs/potlucks are salads…or cupcakes ;p or cocoa puffs from liliha bakery =)
That’s a great idea! I bet they are expecting a lot of hot italian type dishes, you’re throwing them for a loop with the cold fruit/veggie mix! Sounds amazing!
My favorite thing, currently (it changes often, lol), to bring to a potluck is called Texas Caviar:
1 can pinto beans (drained)
1 can black eyed peas (drained)
2 cans white shoepeg corn (not yellow) (drained)
1 cup green bell pepper (chopped)
1 cup celery (chopped)
1 small onion (chopped) (Vidalia is best)
1 small jar pimentos (drained and chopped) (this is optional, but adds color)
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup white sugar
Combine oil, vinegar and sugar over medium/low heat on stove. Bring to a bubble so the sugar dissolves. Let cool and mix it in with all chopped veggie/bean mixture. Refrigerate about 45min – 1 hour.
That sounds awesome! I’m writing that one down :)
so creative, I must try it!! I love pasta salads like that, it’s one of my favorite parts of bbq’s and the summer!!
That looks so good, I can not wait to try it!
My favorite thing to bring to a potluck is caramel brownies. I learned how to make sea-salt caramel a few years ago, and when I put it in rich brownies it is always a hit!
Oh my gosh, I bet it is. YUM! :-P
That’s a really unique idea Courtney! I never would have thought to put fruit and yogurt in with tortellini, but it looks great!
Fruit and tortellini sounds like a perfect combo!
I would never think to pair fruit with tortellini. This looks fantastic, though!!
Yum, this sounds really good! I love bringing a batch of chocolate cupcakes or homemade sangria :)
Love your idea–so colorful and reminds me of summer–yay! :-)
That salad looks so refreshing to eat, especially with a barbecued piece of chicken- love mixing sweet and savory!
That salad looks REALLY GOOD, I need to go buy some tortellini and MAKE it happen!
I made this about a month ago and ‘changed up’ (according to the boyfriend messed up) the recipe as I normally do because I think I’m Rachel Ray. But then as my boyfriend spit it out I realized maybe I should have followed your recipe to a T and that I’m not Rachel Ray. So last night I made this and followed your recipe EXACTLY. Well I/he loved it!!! The only thing I changed was instead of greek yogurt I had mayo with olive oil because I don’t like greek yogurt too much. So delicious!!! I love your recipes keep them coming!!
Hahaha, no worries, Colleen. We all have our “I’m Rachel Ray” moments! ;)
Glad the recipe turned out good the second time around.
Thanks for reading! :)
Just made this for lunch. Pretty darn tasty.
what a neat idea. I look forward to trying this.
Hi I love this idea, it’s so different and great for summer. I have a potluck at work next week. Can this salad be made the night before with the yogurt dressing? My concern is that the dressing will get absorbed and it would be dry.
Thanks, Deb