Creamy sausage tortellini
Cheese tortellini simmered right in a creamy tomato sauce with sausage and spinach, done in one pan in under half an hour.
- 30 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $3.86 a serving
- 870 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 12 oz Italian sausage, mild, casings removed
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can diced tomatoes, with the juice
- 1½ cups chicken broth
- 1 lb 4 oz refrigerated cheese tortellini, refrigerated
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup grated parmesan
- 3 oz baby spinach
From your pantry
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
Each serving has about 870 calories, 38 g protein, 67 g carbs and 50 g fat, and costs about $3.86 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No diced tomatoes? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No chicken broth? Vegetable broth or bone broth works.
- No grated parmesan? Parmesan wedge works.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the garlic.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Cook the sausage in a large, deep over medium-high for 6 to 8 minutes, breaking it up, until with no pink left.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min
Food safety: Raw pork sausage is done at 160°F and raw chicken or turkey sausage at 165°F. Precooked sausage just needs heating until hot all the way through.
Stir in the garlic and Italian seasoning for 30 seconds, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium-high heat
Pour in the tomatoes with their juice and the broth, and bring it .
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium-high heat
Stir in the tortellini, cover, and 5 to 6 minutes, stirring once, until they’re plump and tender.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Dolly’s tip: Bite one to check. Fresh tortellini cook fast and turn mushy if they go too long.Turn the heat to low and stir in the cream and parmesan until the sauce turns pink and creamy.
Low heat
Stir in the spinach until it , then serve right away.
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Low heat
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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