Pesto Tortellini Bake

What you should know about the Ingredients and Substitutions

I want to emphasize that this is a reeeeally flexible recipe, and not a lot can go wrong. If you’re wondering how you can make changes or if you don’t have any of the ingredients listed, scroll through my notes for some ideas of how to make it work anyway.

• Tortellini: Any flavor you like, mine was spinach and ricotta but plain cheese is a great choice too. This recipe was tested with fresh refrigerated tortellini. You could use any tortellini, but the weight will not correspond if you’re using dried or frozen, so you’ll need to eyeball it. This recipe is flexible enough that the exact quantity doesn’t matter too much. Similarly, if the tortellini you’re buying doesn’t come in the right sized package to correspond with the recipe, you can round down a little and it won’t matter.
• Jarred pesto: The jarred stuff works best here. While I normally push homemade pesto where possible, the fact that jarred pesto has been heat treated means it can withstand being baked for a while without losing its flavor. I use green pesto but red would work – it’s a different flavor profile but would be just as good.
• Cream: Heavy / double cream or single, half and half – all will work. The thicker creams will yield a thicker sauce. You could probably melt some cream cheese in if you don’t have any pouring cream, just thin the sauce with some broth or pasta cooking water if you need to.
• Baby plum or cherry tomatoes: These are roasted so they burst and add some lovely juiciness to the sauce as well as delicious bites of jammy tomato within the bake. These could be replaced with vine tomatoes sliced widthways into thirds if needs be. If you can’t manage any tomatoes at all, consider another juicy vegetable like zucchini or mushrooms. Otherwise, you’ll probably need to use more pesto and cream to get things feeling moist and saucy enough – just eyeball it and use your judgement.
• Marinated artichokes or other antipasti: These are optional, and they aren’t the cheapest ingredient so only include them if you love them + have the budget for them. You could also throw in an antipasti mix, olives, sundried tomatoes, whatever is floating around in your fridge threatening to go bad if you don’t use it up soon.
• Canned white beans: Any variety will work – I use cannellini beans but butter beans and navy / haricot beans are also great choices.
• Cheese: I just use a pre-grated bagged mozzarella here for maximum ease, and those pre-grated cheeses do tend to give you the best crispiness, but you can use anything at all. I’ve also tried dotting in some soft goat cheese, or torn fresh mozzarella into the casserole, so if you have something to use up – throw it in!
• Kale: Or spinach, arugula (rocket), chard or whatever leaves work for you. I do like kale the best in this dish because it’s more bulky and chewy – this adds a different texture to the dish alongside all the melty / creamy stuff. If you don’t have leaves, but still want a pop of green, some frozen peas will play nicely here.