Baked Tortellini with Spinach & Cream Cheese
This vegetarian tortellini makes it so easy to eat lots of greens for dinner! The creamy garlicky sauce is packed with spinach while being so luxurious and comforting. With just seven ingredients and no need to precook the tortellini, this is an easy one pot meal.
Ingredients
- ½ onion, diced - any color of onion is fine
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 10 oz (280 g) frozen spinach
- 18 oz (500 g) fresh tortellini, see Notes if you want to swap frozen or dried
- 1 cup (120 g) grated pecorino, parmesan or Italian hard cheese
- 1 cup (100 g) grated mozzarella cheese
- 1 cup (225 g) cream cheese, full fat, not light
- 3 cups (700 ml) vegetable stock or broth
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C / 360F.
- Heat a little olive oil in a shallow casserole dish (one that can go between the stove and oven). Saute your onion and garlic until soft.1/2 onion, 3 cloves garlic
- Prepare the spinach. Microwave it until defrosted, then squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can. I find the best way to do this is to put the spinach in a sieve and use a bowl to press down on it which squeezes the water out. Once finished, add it to the pan and mix it through the onion and garlic mixture for a minute or two.10 oz frozen spinach
- Add the cream cheese and the parmesan style cheese (not the mozzarella - this is for topping!) and mix through over very low heat until it's all combined and the cheese is melted.1 cup cream cheese, 1 cup grated pecorino, parmesan or Italian hard cheese
- Add the vegetable stock and tortellini to the pan. The sauce will be very runny, but don't worry, the tortellini will drink it up while it cooks! Cover, then place in the oven for 20 minutes.3 cups vegetable stock or broth, 18 oz fresh tortellini
- Remove from the oven and uncover. The tortellini should have plumped out and the sauce will be much thicker, though still fairly liquid (don't worry, it will continue to thicken). Stir it through.
- Put the oven's heat up to 200C / 400F. Add the mozzarella cheese over the top and then place back in the oven for a further 5-10 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and browned.1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
- Remove from the oven and let it sit for out for 5-10 minutes before serving. This time will allow the sauce to settle.
Notes
If you're using dried or frozen tortellini, you want to precook the tortellini, drain it and add it into the pan with only 2 cups of vegetable stock rather than 3. It will still be a very runny sauce, because the tortellini will still soak up more liquid as it cooks, but not as much as if it went in uncooked.
Calories: 543kcal, Carbohydrates: 45g, Protein: 27g, Fat: 29g, Saturated Fat: 15g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 6g, Cholesterol: 103mg, Sodium: 1311mg, Potassium: 261mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugar: 6g, Vitamin A: 6494IU, Vitamin C: 4mg, Calcium: 494mg, Iron: 3mg