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This Baked Tortellini with a sausagey tomato sauce is pretty basic but it’s ohhhh so good. It’s my comfort food weakness right now. Highly recommend dunking in there with some buttery garlic bread!

This Baked Tortellini Is My Weakness Right Now.

I started making this as a cozy weekend moment – we’re having a friend over for dinner, we’re ready to tuck in at home, we just want a big pan of carby delight to dive into with butter-soaked crispity pieces of garlic bread.

And then it moved into, like, I can’t wait till the weekend for that so let’s make that again on Tuesday night for dinner.

And now it’s just in the permanent repertoire! Unlike the AFC, it’s not really a nightly situation – this guy is heavy and rich and unapologetically extra, and once a week is about all I can handle. So I save it for a night when I am extra hungry and looking for a comfort food hug, and it delivers every time.

I loosely based this around one of my favorite soups of all time – Ang’s Tortellini Soup. But since it’s already pretty heavy with the cheese on top, I don’t think it needs the cream in there. That said, follow your heart. If you’re wanting some creaminess or a few dollops of garlic herb Rondele in there (a weirdly specific vision I’ve had), please don’t deny yourself this joy.

And DO NOT SKIP the garlic bread – I know it’s an extra step, and you can buy it if you must! But dunking a chunk of garlic bread into that skillet and building a perfect bite with sauce, bread, and a little piece of cheesy tortellini is an elite experience that I don’t want you to miss out on.

Welcome To My House! Come Make This Baked Tortellini With Me.

1

Brown Your Sausage.

I like to let it sit for a minute so it gets *actually* crisped and browned on the outside.

Browning Italian sausage in a pan

2

Chop and Sauté Your Veggies.

I am lazy so I did my veggies in the food processor into a very fine mince. But you can also be proper and chop them.

Chopping veggies in a food processor

 

Sausage gets cooked, veggies get cooked, then they both went back in together. Check out the browning on the sausage. YUMMO!

Sausage and veggies going together in the pan

 

3

Add Tortellini, Etc.

Here goes the sauce and tortellini…

Adding tortellini and tomato sauce to the pan

 

And here comes the spinach. We’re going to simmer.

At this point I’ve made a very nice little mess. Typical.

Adding spinach to the tortellini

4

Bake that Baby Up Under a Cheese Blankie.

I use shredded mozz and grated parm! Plus a bit of parsley for beauty.

Baking the tortellini with cheese

5

Eat This With Garlic Bread. Please. Yum.

It’s very carb-on-carb and it’s SO delicious. Chunks of garlic bread are the perfect vehicle to scoop up that flavorful tomatoey, sausagey sauce plus a bite or two of tortellini. OMG I’m drooling.

Serving baked tortellini with garlic bread

Frequently Asked Questions For Baked Tortellini

How do you make a meatless baked tortellini?

Use a plant-based ground sausage in place of the regular Italian sausage to make this meatless – I really enjoy the Impossible Sausage. You could also just omit the Italian sausage, but be sure to add a bit more fennel, more salt, and maybe even some Italian seasoning or red pepper flakes to compensate for the flavor.

What is the best brand of tortellini?

I prefer fresh / refrigerated tortellini and I really love the Rana cheese tortellini and the Good and Gather cheese tortellini, both found at Target. I normally love Trader Joe’s… buuut their cheese tortellini is the only brand I’ve tried that I don’t super love. I think it’s something about the shape and the texture that just doesn’t do it for me.

What is the best kind of sauce for baked tortellini?

I enjoy this with both jarred tomato sauce and also just a can of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes that I smash in the pan. If you’re using a store bought sauce, I’ve found that Rao’s can be a bit oily here – there’s already a lot of fat from the sausage, the cheese, etc. so, while Rao’s is very popular and very yummy, I would opt for something with slightly less oil. I’ve been using Carbone’s sauce lately and really enjoying it, and of course, we love our DeLallo sauces!

How long do baked tortellini leftovers last?

I enjoy the leftovers for 1-2 days. The tortellini will absorb liquid as it sits in the fridge so it will get a bit more mushy and there will be less of a sauce. But it’s still quite delicious and sometimes I just eat it cold out of the fridge.