Cheesy Tortellini Bake

I love pasta, my family loves pasta as well, but sometimes you want an indulgent comfort meal that is uncomplicated and easy to make. This is that pasta. With store bought fresh tortellini and store bought (or your own homemade) pasta sauce you can have dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes.

The most time consuming part of this pasta bake is waiting for the cheese to melt and for the casserole to become hot and bubbly. On the plus side, while that is happening in the oven you have time to put together a nice fresh salad to go along side and maybe even some garlic bread.

This is one of those quick and inexpensive recipes that fit the budget for a family or student on a budget. You can easily substitute any large pasta for the tortellini, but I would make sure to use a larger noodle. You can make it vegetarian by using a sauce that contains no meat. A basic tomato and basil sauce works very well. If you want to make your own simple tomato sauce try my tomato basil pasta sauce recipe here.

Cheesy Tortellini Bake

This quick and easy weeknight pasta dish is a kid and budget friendly family favorite.

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

Course Main Course, weekday dinner

Cuisine Italian

Servings 4

Equipment

• 1 8×8" Baking dish

Ingredients

  

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups pasta sauce *your favorite marinara
• 1 pound fresh tortellini
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups freshly shredded mozzarella Or thinly sliced mozzarella
• 1/4 cup fresh parmesan

Instructions

 

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
• Put a pot of cold water and bring to a boil add salt
• Spray your baking dish with non stick spray or olive oil
• Grate or slice the mozzarella cheese
• grate the parmesan
• In a small saucepan, heat your pasta sauce
• Once the water is boiling, add salt and the fresh tortellini and cook for 3 minutes then remove with a slotted spoon and add to the pan of warm sauce and toss to coat
• Transfer the pasta and sauce to the baking dish and top with the mozzarella and parmesan cheeses
• Place uncovered in the preheated oven, and bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown and melty.

Notes

This is a super easy put together yet hardy dinner.  It can be easily doubled to feed more.  I always serve this with a tossed salad and garlic toast to complete the meal.

If you have the time you can make this sauce into a meat sauce by frying up your ground meat of choice (season of course) and then add the tomato sauce to the ground meat (about 500g max).

If you want to elevate this to include a delicious homemade tomato sauce, then try my easy tomato basil sauce, you can find the recipe link in the post.

Keyword applesauce, baked pasta, cheesy, easy, oven baked, pasta, pasta bake