This pesto tortellini recipe is easy to make with a handful of simple ingredients including the best homemade pesto sauce. It's a quick & light main dish or side, ready in 20 minutes (or less)!
Heat ¼ cup plus 2 Tablespoons pine nuts in a small sauté pan over medium heat until lightly browned.
Reserve 2 Tablespoons roasted pine nuts for serving.
Next put the olive oil and basil leaves into the container of a blender or food processor. Blend/process for about 60 seconds until the ingredients are combined but not totally smooth. You may need to pause, scrape down the sides, and then continue blending/processing.
Add ¼ cup pine nuts, garlic, ½ cup parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and blend until you reach the desired consistency (about 30-60 seconds).
Taste and adjust salt and pepper as desired, pulse to combine. Then set the sauce aside.
Cook the Tortellini:
Cook tortellini according to package instructions in salted water.
Once cooked, drain the tortellini but do not rinse.
Return the cooked tortellini to the dry pot.
Assemble the Pesto Tortellini
Add pesto sauce to the cooked tortellini in the pot and stir until evenly distributed.
Sprinkle with remaining toasted pine nuts and parmesan cheese.
Add tomatoes if desired.
Serve warm garnished with extra parmesan cheese, toasted pine nuts, julienned basil etc.
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Notes
Note. you can make the pesto up to 2 days in advance and store it in the refrigerator. Ingredient Substitutions
Tortellini. I suggest using fresh, refrigerated cheese tortellini or frozen tortellini if you can find it. It only takes 3-5 minutes to cook. Dried tortellini works well too, it just takes about 15-20 minutes to cook, so keep that in mind.
Baby Tomatoes. Sometimes I like to stir the tomatoes into the warm pasta or cook them until they burst in 1 tablespoon of olive oil before adding to the dish.
Pine nuts. if making your own pesto, reserve 2 tablespoons of toasted pine nuts for serving. If not, I still suggest toasting 2 tablespoons pine nuts until lightly golden brown to serve with this pesto tortellini.
Store/freezeStore leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-5 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.