Meatless – FoodWatcher

Cheese Tortellini in Creamy Marinara

Cheese tortellini makes the best quick dinner recipe! Serve it up in a creamy marinara sauce flavored with goat cheese and basil. Some meatless recipes stand a head above the rest, and this is one of them. In fact, I think we’d be happy eating this genius quick dinner every day of the week. Try this cheese tortellini in creamy marinara sauce! In just 15 minutes, you’ve got a pasta skillet that’s a literal symphony flavor. The fresh basil-infused marinara sauce is perfectly complimented with pillows of tangy goat cheese. (In fact, it’s our baked goat cheese dip made into a main dish, because we love it so much we needed a way to justify it as dinner.) This one is a huge hit in our house…and we hope it will be in yours too! Best cheese tortellini to buy Cheese tortellini often escapes our radar when it comes to pasta: usually we think of penne, spirals or macaroni. But there’s lots of high quality tortellini in grocery stores these days! Tortellini are traditional ring-shaped Italian filled pasta. In Italy you can get them freshly made at local shops. What to look for if you’re not in Italy? Fresh tortellini […]

A Couple Cooks – Healthy, Whole Food, & Vegetarian Recipes

Cheese tortellini makes the best quick dinner recipe! Serve it up in a creamy marinara sauce flavored with goat cheese and basil.

Some meatless recipes stand a head above the rest, and this is one of them. In fact, I think we’d be happy eating this genius quick dinner every day of the week. Try this cheese tortellini in creamy marinara sauce! In just 15 minutes, you’ve got a pasta skillet that’s a literal symphony flavor. The fresh basil-infused marinara sauce is perfectly complimented with pillows of tangy goat cheese. (In fact, it’s our baked goat cheese dip made into a main dish, because we love it so much we needed a way to justify it as dinner.) This one is a huge hit in our house…and we hope it will be in yours too!

Best cheese tortellini to buy

Cheese tortellini often escapes our radar when it comes to pasta: usually we think of penne, spirals or macaroni. But there’s lots of high quality tortellini in grocery stores these days! Tortellini are traditional ring-shaped Italian filled pasta. In Italy you can get them freshly made at local shops. What to look for if you’re not in Italy?

Fresh tortellini is sold refrigerated. This is usually the best quality when it comes to tortellini recipes. It boils up in just 2 to 3 minutes.
Frozen tortellini is also a good option. We like frozen because it saves well and you can pull it out at moments notice.
Avoid dried tortellini. Tortellini isn’t traditionally a dried pasta: and all the brands we’ve tried dried just haven’t measured up.
Look for any type of cheese tortellini for this recipe. Use 3 cheese, spinach ricotta, Parmesan: any type of cheese flavor will work.

Secrets to the best creamy marinara sauce

This tasty cheese tortellini recipe is engineered by us to be two things: mega quick and mega delicious! This one’s like a cross between our famous baked goat cheese and our goat cheese pasta. It capitalizes on the best flavor pairing: a great tomato sauce that’s made creamy using soft goat cheese. Here are a few tips for the very best creamy marinara:

Use canned fire roasted tomatoes. This special type of tomato is becoming easy to find. It’s charred over an open flame, which gives them a beautifully sweet flavor right out of the can. Can’t find them? Use the best quality tomatoes you can find.
Use fresh basil. It’s a splurge in winter, but it’s absolutely worth it for the peppery flavor it imparts.
Use soft goat cheese (chevre). You might think a creamy marinara is good with heavy cream. But it’s great with soft goat cheese! None of those hard crumbles with the texture of feta: this sauce deserves a good chevre.

Why it works

Here you’ll use soft goat cheese to crumble into the marinara, and it adds a tang and a creamy body that makes it taste like a best-in-class gourmet meal. Add those beautifully boiled cheese tortellini, and every bite is velvety, heavenly goodness. You can save out a few goat cheese crumbles as a topping, too.

We like to add a little spinach into the mix too! It adds nutrients but the way it melds into the skillet, you can barely tell that it’s there.

Is goat cheese healthy? How does it compare to cow’s cheese?

You may have heard that when it comes to cheese, goat cheese can be a healthier option that other cheeses. You’re right! There are a few advantages to choosing this cheese vs a mozzarella or a Parmesan. Goat cheese has the following going for it (source: Prevention):

More vitamins and minerals than cow’s cheese. Goat’s milk is richer in essential nutrients than cow’s milk. It has more vitamin A & B, calcium, iron, magnesium, and potassium.
Slightly less calories than cow’s cheese. Goat cheese has just 75 calories per ounce—less than cow cheeses like mozzarella (85 calories), Swiss (108 calories), and cheddar (115 calories).
May be easier to digest. Goat cheese has less lactose than cow’s milk and a slightly different protein structure, so people who are lactose intolerant many times can digest goat cheese.

Can you make it gluten-free?

Yes! There are actually some good brands of gluten free tortellini on the market these days. We don’t eat exclusively gluten-free, so we don’t have a preferred brand. But there are lots of great options in both refrigerated and frozen varieties. Again, we recommend steering away from dried. Do you have a brand to recommend? Let us know in the comments below.

What to serve with cheese tortellini!

This cheese tortellini recipe is an ideal quick dinner: it takes less than 20 minutes to whip up! Pair it with a simple side dish or two and you’re in business. It’s ideal for Meatless Mondays or impressing friends with a tasty vegetarian dinner. Of course, it can be harder than you think to find side dishes that work with the flavors, compliments it nutritionally, and is easy enough to make while you tackle the main dish. Here are a few of our favorite sides to pair here:

Simple salad: This Easy Arugula Salad could not be simpler (really).
Broccoli: Our go to! We make this Pan Fried Broccoli almost every day.
Asparagus: This Lemony Broiled Asparagus takes just 5 minutes to broil and adds fiber to the meal.

This cheese tortellini recipe is…

Vegetarian. For gluten-free, use gluten-free tortellini.

Cheese Tortellini in Creamy Marinara

(5 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

5 from 5 reviews

Author: Sonja Overhiser
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4
Diet: Vegetarian

Print Recipe

Description

Cheese tortellini makes the best quick dinner recipe! Serve it up in a creamy marinara sauce flavored with goat cheese and basil.

Ingredients

12 to 16 ounces frozen or refrigerated cheese tortellini
28 ounce can crushed fire roasted tomatoes (or best quality crushed tomatoes)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups baby spinach leaves, tightly packed (or chopped spinach)
8 fresh basil leaves
4 ounce goat cheese log

Instructions

Boil the tortellini according to the package instructions (fresh usually takes 2 to 3 minutes and frozen takes 2 to 5 minutes to boil). Then drain it.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet, place the crushed tomatoes, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder, oregano, kosher salt, spinach, and whole basil leaves. Bring to a simmer, then cover and simmer while the pasta cooks or at least 10 minutes.
When the pasta is done and drained, add it to the skillet. Crumble in the goat cheese into the sauce and stir until a creamy sauce forms (if you’d like, save out a few crumbles for topping). Serve immediately.

Category: Main dish
Method: Stovetop
Cuisine: Dinner

Keywords: Cheese tortellini, Tortellini recipes

A Couple Cooks - Healthy, Whole Food, & Vegetarian Recipes

Epic Vegetarian Fajitas

Everyone loves this easy vegetarian fajitas recipe! This Tex Mex dinner is full of big flavor and beautiful colorful veggies. Here’s a Tex Mex favorite that no one can turn down…and it’s a great way to infuse loads of veggies without giving it a second thought. Try these Vegetarian Faijtas! These are so full flavored and satisfying, they please everyone around the table: even the meat lovers! This fajita recipe stars our favorite fajita veggies, blackened in the oven and finished on the stove, with pinto beans cooked in a flavorful fajita sauce. It’s so satisfying, you’ll promptly add it to your regular rotation. How to make vegetarian fajitas: an overview These vegetarian fajita recipe can come together in about 30 minutes, and the concepts are very simple. There’s a little back and forth between the cooking methods, so here’s a bit more about the why behind the what: Prep the veggies: There’s quite a bit of veggies here, so use your most efficient knife skills! Head to How to Cut a Pepper or How to Cut an Onion if you need to brush up. Broil the veggies (10 minutes): Throw the veggies in a broiler first. This gets them […]

A Couple Cooks – Healthy, Whole Food, & Vegetarian Recipes

Everyone loves this easy vegetarian fajitas recipe! This Tex Mex dinner is full of big flavor and beautiful colorful veggies.

Here’s a Tex Mex favorite that no one can turn down…and it’s a great way to infuse loads of veggies without giving it a second thought. Try these Vegetarian Faijtas! These are so full flavored and satisfying, they please everyone around the table: even the meat lovers! This fajita recipe stars our favorite fajita veggies, blackened in the oven and finished on the stove, with pinto beans cooked in a flavorful fajita sauce. It’s so satisfying, you’ll promptly add it to your regular rotation.

How to make vegetarian fajitas: an overview

These vegetarian fajita recipe can come together in about 30 minutes, and the concepts are very simple. There’s a little back and forth between the cooking methods, so here’s a bit more about the why behind the what:

Prep the veggies: There’s quite a bit of veggies here, so use your most efficient knife skills! Head to How to Cut a Pepper or How to Cut an Onion if you need to brush up.
Broil the veggies (10 minutes): Throw the veggies in a broiler first. This gets them to release their liquid so they’ll all fit in one saute pan, and gets them lightly charred. Why broil instead of baking? You don’t have to wait to preheat your oven, and it’s a quicker broil time.
Meanwhile, get the beans started: Make our homemade fajita sauce (more on that below) and throw it in a skillet with the beans.
Finish the veggies in a skillet: Finishing in the skillet gets them nice and tender. This makes it much quicker than roasting and gets that classic fajita skillet sizzle.

Pinto beans add plant-based protein and flavor

The key to vegetarian fajitas is finding a stand in for meat that has great flavor and a good amount of protein. We’ve used portobello mushrooms in the vegetable mix to add big meaty flavor. But mushrooms don’t have protein, so on their own they’re not very filling.

Pinto beans are perfect for vegetarian fajitas! They’re savory with a robust flavor, and they taste incredible with homemade fajita sauce (we’ll get to that next). If you prefer, you can use black beans instead. Just don’t skimp on the beans, since they’re the major protein source.

Homemade fajita sauce is key

We highly recommend our homemade fajita sauce for this recipe! It’s got a great zing from the lime juice, and a smoky body from the adobo sauce. Here’s a little breakdown of the ingredients, and make sure to head over to Homemade Fajita Sauce for the full recipe:

Lime juice
Cumin
Adobo sauce: from 1 can chipotle peppers
Garlic powder
Salt
Olive oil

What are chipotle peppers in adobo sauce? They’re easy to find at most grocery stores near the Mexican products. The can includes chipotle chiles: smoked and dried jalapeños that are rehydrated and canned, and adobo sauce, a purée of tomato, vinegar, garlic, and other spices. All you do is use a spoon to remove adobo sauce from the can. Refrigerate or freeze the remainder, and use it for more adobo sauce recipes, like tortilla soup or enchilada sauce.

Toppings for vegetarian fajitas

Once you’ve made your veggies and pinto beans: let’s talk toppings! You can use any of your favorite fajita toppings here. In fact: the toppings are the only thing that make this vegetarian fajita recipe! Otherwise, all the ingredients are vegan. So you can make this a vegan fajitas recipe with plant-based toppings. Here are our must-have fajitas toppings (what are yours?):

Pico de gallo: It adds just the right zing
Sour cream: Always. For vegan, substitute Cashew Cream
Fresh cilantro: Another must! It’s the perfect contrast to the savory veggies
Guacamole: Optional — or use a mashed avocado
Cheese: Optional too! You can add shredded cheddar, feta, queso fresco or cotija cheese: but the flavor doesn’t need it! It’s ultra flavorful as is.

Make it a meal: sides to add

These vegetarian fajitas are fantastic on their own: most nights we don’t even make a side to go with them! (Truth.) But here are a few easy side ideas for adding to make it a meal:

Chips and guacamole: Quick and easy! Look for organic chips with just 3 ingredients (corn, oil and salt)
Easy green salad: Try this crisp green Mexican Salad
Avocado salad: Try an easy Cucumber, Tomato & Avocado Salad

This vegetarian fajita recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free (with corn tortillas).