Pesto tortellini salad with roasted grape tomatoes....

I have to admit that at first I felt a little ripped off about shelling out nearly three bucks for a tiny jar of sauce. Then I brought it home and discovered that that one tiny jar contains enough sauce for numerous dishes. It can be spread on sandwiches and used as pizza sauce or a marinade for grilled chicken or baked fish. But it's the pesto pasta salad that has become a favorite meal around our house over the last few weeks. It is just so versatile and easy to make. It can be made with any type of pasta, red or green pesto, any kind of veggies and can be served hot or cold! What's not to love?
For this particular salad, I roasted up a pan of grape tomatoes. If you have never tried roasted tomatoes, what the heck have you been waiting for? They are so sweet and intensely flavored. My faves for roasting are these little grape tomatoes or Roma's slit lengthwise. I just toss them with a bit of olive oil and salt and roasted them in a 400˚ oven for about 30-45min or until wrinkled and slightly browned.


I also used tomato pesto to keep with the tomato flavors...


While I was boiling the tortellini for this dish I tossed a handful of frozen peas and a package of frozen artichoke hearts into the past water. When the pasta was cooked, I drained it, tossed it with a touch of olive oil and let it cool. When it was cool I mixed in a tablespoon or so of pesto, the roasted tomatoes and a bit of salt and pepper. If I was going to serve it hot, I would have done exactly the same, but skipped the cooling part... but I guess that was pretty obvious...