Tortellini Pesto Camp Salad
Dried tortellini boiled once, cooled in the pot, then folded with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes.
- calories
- 690
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 115
- protein
- 21 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 22 min
- water
- 1200 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dried cheese tortellini | 8 oz | the shelf-stable dried kind, not refrigerated |
|---|---|---|
| Sun-dried tomatoes in oil | 1/3 cup | drained, oil kept |
| Marinated artichoke hearts | 1 jar, 6 oz | drained and quartered |
| Pesto | 1/4 cup | shelf-stable jar; contains pine nuts |
| Hard aged cheese | 2 oz | parmesan or aged provolone, cubed small |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste |
Method
- Boil about 1.2 L of water with a good pinch of salt. Add the tortellini and cook until they float and go tender, roughly 10 minutes for dried.
- Drain. Save a splash of the water in case the sauce seizes up.
- Spread the pasta around the cold pot and let it sit a few minutes so the pesto does not turn to oil slick on contact.
- Stir in the pesto, the drained tomatoes and artichokes, and the oil. Add a spoon of pasta water if it looks tight.
- Fold in the cheese cubes last. Pepper it, eat it warm or let it cool while you set up camp.
The original is a fridge dish: fresh mozzarella balls, raw tomatoes, mayonnaise. None of that survives a day in a pack, so the wet parts get swapped for oil-packed ones. Sun-dried tomatoes and marinated artichokes bring the same acid and salt while sitting in the oil that keeps them safe, and a hard aged cheese does the mozzarella’s job of giving you something to chew.
The mayonnaise is gone entirely. Pesto plus the oil off the tomatoes coats the pasta well enough, and it is one less thing to keep cold. Draining well matters: dried tortellini holds water in its folds, and that water thins the pesto into a puddle at the bottom of the pot. Let it steam off for a minute before the sauce goes in.
Packing
Tortellini in its own bag. The jars are the weight problem: decant pesto, tomatoes, and artichokes into small screw-top containers at home and pack them upright in a side pocket. Cheese goes in last so it does not get crushed.
Variations
- No jars at all: use sun-dried tomato halves, dried artichokes, and a pesto powder mix rehydrated in 2 tbsp of oil.
- A foil packet of chicken turns it into a full dinner for two.
- Toasted pine nuts on top if you have the space.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/web-stories/viral-tortellini-pasta-salad-recipe