Tortellini with Creamy Tomato Sauce

This recipe comes from Christina Cooks as part of a recipe swap and it is great for a quick and easy yet comforting meal.  I usually like to keep homemade marinara sauce in my freezer so that we can bring it out for quick weeknight dinners.  This recipe would work with sauce that you might have on hand (even jarred) and if you don't have any on hand, the sauce takes almost no time to make at all.  The original recipe calls for ricotta cheese but I used heavy cream since I had some that I wanted to use up and Matt isn't a huge fan of ricotta anyway.  I thought this substitution worked perfectly and can't wait to make this dinner again.

 Tortellini with Creamy Tomato Sauce

1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 pounds spinach tortellini or ravioli
1 cup marinara sauce (another quick recipe listed below if you don't have any on hand)
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt and freshly ground pepper
Parmesan cheese

Thinly sliced fresh basil leaves, to taste and for garnish

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add the pasta and cook until al dente, according to package directions. Drain the ravioli, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Toss the ravioli with the remaining oil to coat.

Meanwhile, bring the marinara sauce to a simmer in medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring often.  Whisk in the cream.  Add reserved cooking water as needed to thin the sauce to desired consistency. Return the sauce to a simmer.  Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, spoon some sauce over the bottom of each pasta bowl.  Arrange the cooked pasta over the sauce.  Drizzle remaining amount of desired sauce over the pasta.  Sprinkle with Parmesan and basil and serve.

Quick Marinara Sauce

2 – 28 oz. cans whole tomatoes in juice
1 bunch fresh basil, stemmed
½ cup olive oil
2 small onions, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon sugar
1 Parmesan rind (optional) or grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

In a blender, puree the tomatoes with their juice and the basil until almost smooth (an immersion blender would also work). Set the tomato puree aside.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onions and garlic and sauté until very tender, about 12 minutes.  Stir in the tomato puree, oregano, sugar and optional Parmesan rind.  Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.  Decrease the heat to medium and continue simmering until the sauce thickens slightly, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes or more if you have time. Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper.  Discard Parmesan rind.

The sauce can be made 1 day ahead.  If storing for future use, cool, then cover and refrigerate or freeze.


Source: Christina Cooks, originally from Giada Di Laurentiis