Tortellini and Spinach with an Asiago Cream Sauce
On Fridays Jon and I don't even have to discuss our plans for that evening - it's just assumed that by 4:30 or 5:00 PM on Friday we'll both be sitting on bar stools at either Jumpin Jacks, The Gardenville Hotel, The Country Tavern, or another "townie" bar in Doylestown or New Hope. It's also our ritual to pick up a pizza on our ride home, but we weren't in the mood for that last night. Instead, I decided to look through what we had in the house and whip something up.
I pulled a few things out of the fridge and pantry -
frozen tortellini
white wine
a few cloves of garlic and a small yellow onion
salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes
fresh spinach
Cheeses - Asiago and Pecorino-Romano
milk and butter
flour
While Jon took a quick (beer-induced?) nap, I made what turned out to be a really good pasta dish!! Even better, the total cooking time, including time to boil that water, was only 25 minutes.
- Cook tortellini
- In the meantime, melt butter (about 2 tbs) in a pan. Add garlic (3 cloves minced) and 1 sm chopped onion. Saute.
- Add 1 tbs flour, stir
- Add dash of white wine, stir
- Add about 1 c of milk (or cream) and spices (salt, pepper, red pepper flakes). Bring to a steady simmer
- Add shredded cheeses (about 1 c total, mostly Asiago) and stir.
- Add 1/2 bag of fresh spinach and the tortellini. Stir until everything is coated and the spinach slightly wilts.
Now that I've made this cream sauce, I'm looking forward to trying it with different pasta shapes, more veggies, and even some chicken.
