Need a festive patriotic salad for a pot luck or for entertaining at home? Look no further here is an easy recipe for red, white and blue tortellini salad. This salad will garner accolades once your guests see and taste this chilled salad. Cooked cheese tortellini is tinted red, and blue and mixed with 2/3 of the natural tortellini. Italian dressing coats the tortellini for great zesty flavor. Mini mozzarella pearls add the pop of white for this patriotic salad.
How to Make Red, White and Blue Tortellini Salad
For this recipe you will need latex gloves, two large zip lock baggies, super red and royal blue food gel, Italian dressing, baby mozzarella pearls, refrigerated tortellini pasta and a pretty white bowl to serve it in.
In a large saucepan filled with water, cook pasta as per directions. Drain and pat dry. In two zip lock bags, place 12-15 tortellini’s of the dry and chilled pasta in each bag. Wearing your gloves, tint one bag with super red food gel and the other bag with royal blue food gel. Toss to coat and color pasta.
Tinting Pasta Red and Blue
Food gel will stain your fingers or anything it comes in contact with, so that is why you need to wear gloves. It will also color natural tortellini in a bowl, so that is why you will only be tinting about 1/3 of the tortellini. This colored pasta will be added to the salad after tossing with majority of pasta with Italian dressing. This prevents the pasta dye from bleeding onto the natural pasta.
Keep tinted pasta in bags until ready to serve.
Place remaining pasta in bowl and add remaining ingredients except colored tortellini. Toss to coat with dressing. Spoon colored pasta and mozzarella pearls to dish right before serving.
Ingredients for Red, White and Blue Tortellini Salad
1 pkg. refrigerated tortellini
2 drops each super red, royal blue food gel
1/2 cup baby mozzarella pearls
1/2 cup Italian dressing
Optional: Star Cut out Swiss Cheese Stars using a mini star cookie cutter.
Do not microwave or heat this tinted pasta, it will bleed and be an ugly mess.. it will taste great but look really messy and muddy, besides the mozzarella pearls will melt and clump together.
Turn this into a Red, White and Blue Appetizer
Yes, you can make red, white and blue tortellini kabobs, check out this recipe and create a mini charcuterie board for each guest you plan to entertain.
Red White Blue Tortellini Salad
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings
- Category: Salads
- Method: Stove top
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
1 pkg. refrigerated tortellini
2 drops each super red, royal blue food gel
1/2 cup baby mozzarella pearls
1/2 cup Italian dressing
Optional: 8 slices Swiss cheese star cut outs using mini star cookie cutter
Instructions
- Follow cooking instructions on tortellini packages. Drain and chill.
- In two zip lock bags, place 1/3 of chilled tortellini in each bag.
- Tint one bag with red food gel, repeat with other bag blue gel. Toss to color pasta. (Wear gloves when handling pasta). To Make Kabobs see below or you can serve the tortellini in a large bowl with 2/3 of the cooked tortellini. Do not microwave the pasta mozzarella pearls will melt.
- Keep tinted pasta in bags until serving.
- Place remaining pasta in bowl and add remaining ingredients except colored tortellini. Toss to coat with dressing.
- Spoon colored pasta and mozzarella pearls to dish right before serving.
Making the Kabob Skewer Appetizers
- Wear latex gloves when handling the red and blue tortellini. the food will bleed.
- With frilly red white and blue picks/skewers, thread one red, natural, and blue tortellini on skewer, end with white mozzarella pearl.
- Place tortellini kabab on Vinta cracker to serve. (cracker will protect your board from tinted tortellini)
Notes
Served well chilled, add tinted tortellini right before serving, keep tinted pasta in separate bags or containers as not to mix red with blue.
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