Week 12: Recipe #5--Tortellini Spinach Bake in Creamy Lemon Sauce

This recipe is from the blog, Our Best Bites (see link below).  It's not too complicated to make, and Lily loves to eat any kind of pasta, so it's a good recipe for us.  Plus, anything with bacon is a major plus for Jeff!  I serve this with a green salad and good bread.

Photo from Our Best Bites blog

You'll Need:

• 12 oz. bag of Barilla Cheese and Spinach Tortellini (find them in any dry pasta aisle)
• 4 oz. bacon or pancetta, (about 4 strips of bacon) You could leave this out and make it a vegetarian meal.
• 3 cloves garlic, pressed in garlic press or finely minced
• 2 Tblsp. flour
• 2 c. milk
• 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp. dry basil
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (1/2 tsp. or more if you like spicy)
• 1 medium lemon
• 2 c. loosely packed fresh spinach, roughly chopped
• 3/4 c. grated mozzarella cheese, divided
• 3/4 c. grated parmesan cheese, divided

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill a large stock pot with water and bring to a boil.  Add tortellini and cook according to package instructions.
2. Place bacon in a medium sized skillet on the stovetop at medium-high heat.  Cook until crisp.  Remove bacon from pan with slotted spoon and set on paper towels to drain.  Reserve two tablespoons bacon drippings in pan and discard the rest.
3. Add garlic to pan and cook until fragrant and tender, about 1 minute.  Add flour to pan and stir with a whisk for about 1 minute.  Slowly add milk and continue to stir with whisk until smooth.  Add salt, pepper, basil, and red pepper flakes and bring sauce to a simmer.
4. While sauce is heating, use a microplane grater or a fine-holed cheese grater to zest lemon.  Then cut lemon in half and remove juice.  Add 2 teaspoons zest and 1 tablespoon lemon juice to sauce.  (If that's too lemony for your taste, Our Best Bites suggests cutting it down to 1 tsp. zest and 2 tsp. lemon juice.)  Continue to stir until thickened, 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat.
5. Drain tortellini and place back in stock pot.  Reserve 1 tablespoon of the cooked bacon and add the rest to the pasta mixture.  Add spinach, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup parmesan.  Add sauce and gently stir to combine.  Place pasta mixture in an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 baking dish and top with remaining 1/4 cup mozzarella, 1/4 cup grated parmesan, and crumbled bacon.
6. Cover pan with foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, until cheese on top is melted and pasta is bubbly throughout.  Remove form oven and cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe and link:  http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/04/tortellini-spinach-bake-in-creamy-lemon/