Tortellini Pasta Salad
This Tortellini Pasta Salad with cheese tortellini, tomatoes, basil, and corn in a light spicy brown mustard and honey vinaigrette dressing is the perfect summer salad. It’s my favorite salad for potlucks and family gatherings!
Updated April 22, 2025, with new photos.
Cheese Tortellini Pasta Salad
If there’s any salad that tastes like summer, this cheese tortellini pasta salad with tomatoes, basil, and corn absolutely has to be it. The spicy brown mustard and the honey add that slightly different twist to this traditional pasta salad.
I love this salad because it is perfect for all of those summer parties where I need to bring a side dish, and also works for an easy summer dinner recipe for the family.
Save this Recipe
Enter your email address and we will send you this recipe to your mailbox for easy reference! Plus, we will send you our latest recipes every week!
To make this salad a main dish, stir in any cooked meat, such as chopped rotisserie chicken, steak bites, or pan-cooked salmon.
The light, sweet, and tangy vinaigrette made with Italian dressing will quickly become one of your favorite dressings for summer, too! If you like this salad, try my Italian Caprese Pasta Salad.
Ingredients
- Tortellini Pasta. We prefer to use the refrigerated type of cheese tortellini when making this salad, because it cooks super quickly. However, there are shelf-stable tortellini found in the pasta section of your favorite grocer and frozen cheese tortellini as another option.
- Grape Tomatoes. You could use any type of fresh, firm tomatoes, such as Roma tomatoes.
- Sweet Corn. Fresh from the garden or frozen works best. In a pinch, you could substitute canned corn, but I’d opt for white shoepeg corn if going the canned corn route.
- Olive oil or avocado oil
- Red wine vinegar
- Fresh lemon juice: If I don’t have any fresh lemons on hand, add an extra tablespoon of red wine vinaigrette to replace the lemon juice.
- Spicy brown mustard
- Honey
- Fresh Basil. In a pinch, if for some reason you can’t locate any fresh basil for this recipe, you could add 1/2 tsp. dried basil to the vinaigrette dressing.
- Crushed or minced fresh garlic
- Kosher salt
- Fresh lemon zest, optional
- Optional: Parmesan Cheese. If you have a block of Parmesan cheese in your fridge, take your peeler to it and get some nice long strips of cheese to garnish your salad with – it looks so pretty!
Making Tortellini Pasta Salad
Cook the cheese tortellini according to package directions, just until al dente. Drain and cool the tortellini pasta.
Chop your tomatoes, removing as much of the juice as possible—otherwise, the tomato juice can make the tortellini soggy.
In a large serving bowl, place tortellini, tomatoes, chopped basil, corn, and Parmesan cheese.
In a Mason jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the vinaigrette ingredients and shake well to emulsify. This is a basic vinaigrette, and you are welcome to customize it as needed.
Alternatively, if you prefer to omit the honey and sweeten the dressing with a touch of agave nectar or sugar, feel free. I’ve even used Splenda to sweeten this dressing before, and it worked just great.
Save some of the dressing to pour over the salad just before serving, to freshen the pasta. Pour dressing over salad ingredients. Very gently toss to combine. I like using my spoonulas for this.
Top with Parmesan, if desired. Salad is best served at room temperature.
How long will this salad keep in the refrigerator?
Up to 3 days. Past that, the tortellini starts to get pretty soggy. But don’t kid yourself. There’s no way this salad will last longer that 1-2 days in your fridge because your family is going to go CRAZY for it, I promise!
Double the recipe if I’m cooking for a crowd
In this instance, you’d double every single ingredient in the salad.
As for the vinaigrette, doubling the lemon zest and the garlic may be over powering, so I’d go by taste on that one.
Vegetable variations
I think adding cooked broccoli or even asparagus to this salad would be gorgeous and tasty. I once added fresh spinach to this salad when I was trying to stretch it to feed a big crowd – everyone loved it.
Shop This Recipe
We love summer salads of all kinds around here. From my layered Delta Corn Bread Salad to Crunchy Corn Salad with Chili Cheese Fritos, they are the staples of my kitchen.
Tortellini Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 12 oz. pkg. cheese tortellini pasta, such as Barilla brand
- 3 cups grape or cherry tomatoes halved lengthwise
- 2 cups frozen sweet corn thawed
- 1/3 cup fresh basil sliced into thin strips (called chiffonade)
- 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan optional
Vinaigrette
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest optional
- 1 teaspoon spicy brown mustard
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 clove garlic crushed
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- Cook the tortellini according to package directions, just until al dente; drain and rinse with cold water to cool.12 oz. pkg. cheese tortellini pasta, such as Barilla brand
- Place the cooked tortellini, tomatoes, corn, basil, and Parmesan into a large serving bowl.3 cups grape or cherry tomatoes, 2 cups frozen sweet corn, 1/3 cup fresh basil, 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan
- In a Mason jar that has a tight-fitting lid, combine all the vinaigrette ingredients and shake well to combine and emulsify.1/2 cup olive oil, 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest, 1 teaspoon spicy brown mustard, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 clove garlic, 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Pour the prepared dressing over the salad ingredients and very gently toss to combine.
- Top with more Parmesan, if desired. Salad is best served at room temperature.