Creamy Tortellini with Spinach & Tomatoes
Creamy tortellini with spinach and tomatoes is a saucy pasta dinner the whole family happily agrees on! A delicious garlic cream smothers cheese tortellini dotted with tomatoes and spinach for a quick and easy dinner that’s picky eater approved!
Move over Taco Tuesday! It’s time for something new.
Tortellini Tuesday!
After you try this dreamy creamy tortellini with spinach and tomatoes, you’ll definitely want to make it a weekly thing.
You can’t beat the cooking time- it’s even quicker than plain old pasta.
And it’s full of cheese.
Cheese.
When has anyone ever complained about eating cheese?
Not any of my kids, at least, and as a busy parent that’s a big deal- especially in a dish that has them also happily eating spinach and tomatoes.
Plus it’s versatile.
You can use fresh, frozen, or dried tortellini in this recipe and frozen tortellini is a freezer staple for us.
Ingredients
To make this creamy tortellini you’ll need:
- Tortellini– I use cheese tortellini but you could substitute spinach and cheese or even chicken tortellini. Also, it doesn’t matter if you use fresh or frozen.
- Garlic– Minced
- Spinach– Chopped fresh spinach.
- Tomatoes– A can of petite diced tomatoes. You could also dice up some fresh tomatoes if you prefer.
- Dried spices and seasonings– Salt, pepper, dried basil, onion flakes
- Flour– All purpose to thicken the sauce.
- Half and half– Don’t substitute a lighter milk product. You want the richness from the half and half.
- Parmesan cheese– Grated
How to Make
This tortellini with spinach and tomatoes is so easy!
Just cook the tortellini according to the directions on the package.
While the tortellini is boiling, roughly chop the spinach.
Then, briefly sauté the minced garlic in a large skillet over medium heat just until the garlic is fragrant.
At this point, add the petite diced tomatoes (undrained), spinach, salt, pepper, dried basil, and onion flakes to the skillet.
Cook and stir over medium high heat until the mixture begins to bubble.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour and half and half until it’s fairly smooth.
Stir the mixture into the the skillet along with the Parmesan cheese.
Heat through and reduce the heat to medium low and continue to stir and cook until it thickens, about 5 minutes.
Add the drained tortellini and mix together gently.
Serve and enjoy!
Storing Leftovers
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
This reheats nicely in the microwave.
Should I rinse tortellini after cooking it?
Nope.
You don’t want to wash away the starch.
It will help the sauce stick to the tortellini and thicken it some.
Tips and Tricks
- You could cut up a chicken breast and sauté it in garlic butter and toss it with the tortellini for an extra hearty meal.
- There’s no such thing as too much cheese! Feel free to top with extra.
- Want to add more veggies to this? Sliced mushrooms work so well in this dish!
Other Tortellini Recipes
Creamy tortellini with spinach and tomatoes is a meal we all love because it’s so quick and delicious!
Make it and enjoy!
Looking for other tortellini recipes?
Try these:
- Creamy Alfredo Tortellini with Broccoli
- Cheesy Ground Beef Enchilada Tortellini
- Cold Tortellini Pasta Salad with Ranch Dressing
- Curried Tortellini Meatball Soup
- Creamed Spinach Tortellini with Seasoned Shrimp
If you’ve tried this CREAMY TORTELLINI WITH SPINACH & TOMATOES, or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and whatever else we’ve got going on!
Creamy Tortellini with Spinach & Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 1 lb cheese tortellini
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 cup chopped fresh spinach
- 1 14.5 ounce can petite diced tomatoes
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
- 1 teaspoon onion flakes
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Begin by boiling your tortellini noodles until they are al dente (aka ready). Follow the directions on the package for boiling time.
- While the tortellini is boiling, roughly chop the spinach.
- Heat a large skillet using medium heat and put the two minced garlic into it. Saute it briefly until fragrant, about thirty seconds or so.
- Add into the skillet the petite diced tomatoes (undrained), spinach, salt, pepper, dried basil, and onion flakes.
- Cook and stir over medium high heat until the mixture begins to bubble.
- In another bowl, combine the flour and half-and-half. Whisk until fairly smooth.
- Add the creamy mixture into the the skillet along with the Parmesan cheese.
- Heat through and reduce the heat to medium low and continue to stir and cook until it thickens, about 5 minutes.
- Add the drained tortellini and mix together gently.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- You could cut up a chicken breast and sauté it in garlic butter and toss it with the tortellini for an extra hearty meal.
- There's no such thing as too much cheese! Feel free to top with extra.
- Want to add more veggies to this? Sliced mushrooms work so well in this dish!
Nutrition
This looks and sounds so yummy! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Thanks, Laurie 🙂
Linked at: https://mizhelenscountrycottage.blogspot.com/2014/05/full-plate-thursday-5-29-14.html
very nice indeed! thanks to bringing it to the party at FF18!
This is a great recipe!! My husband absolutely loved it. I added ground hot Italian sausage, a little more parmesan cheese, and used fresh basil instead of dried. Used fresh pre made tortellini instead of dried or frozen. Took maybe 20-25 minutes to make.. such little effort for a big reward. Will be making this again!
Oh my!!! This is my kind of pasta! I wouldn’t mind having more than one serving of this! Looks so delish! Thank you for bringing this to FF18! 🙂 Happy weekend!
I like the idea of Tortellini Tuesday! And the pasta sounds absolutely delicious! 😀
I jus made this omg it’s so yummy…almost too pretty to eat…
Thanks again for another wonderful dinner idea….
Kimberly
I can’t wait to make this, it looks and sounds wonderful. Love the ingredients! 🙂
Your Creamy Tortellini looks delicious, a great dish! Thanks so much for sharing this awesome recipe with Full Plate Thursday. Hope you have a great week and come back soon!
Miz Helen
I just wanted to let you know I actually made this tonight for my guys. We all LOVED it. Followed the recipe exactly, except we did use fat free half and half. You’d never know the difference, it was delicious. Many thanks for a fantastic recipe that I’m sure I’ll be asked to make again. 🙂
This is pure comfort food! I seem to always have tortellini either in my freezer or cupboard and this looks like an amazing use for it!
Thanks for posting at Fiesta Friday.
Mollie
I made this for my family the other night and ot was a HUGE success! Thr only thing is that next time I’m going to double or even triple the recipe. We are a family of 5 and there wasn’t enough, even with making crescent rolls on the side. The flavor was amazing!
Made this today, using fat-free half and half. Absolutely delicious!
Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for sharing, Robin! Glad you guys enjoyed it!!
Can this be made and frozen? Can u email me the answer please. Looking for great ideas like this. Thanks 🙏
I don’t recommend freezing it bc the cream sauce will break down when thawed. Luckily, it’s quick and easy to throw together.
I made this DELICIOUS meal and it was amazing! Super quick for a busy night. We ate every last bite of it!!
Made this again for the second time. Definitely a company worthy meal.
Just made this and love how flavorful and easy this was to make. I threw in some smoked sausage for my meat eater and it works so well. I will definitely be putting this in the meal rotation!
I added spicy ground sausage to mine….amazing touch !!!! Great recipe !!!
Made this the other night and it was super simple to follow and great tasting!
Can this be made ahead and then put in oven?
Any substitution for onion flakes?
You can sub a little onion powder, or sauteed diced onions. Both work for infusing the flavor, but the latter will offer the texture too.
A little bland for my taste. Needs something to spice it up a bit.
its looking soo delicious food
These were delicious! The only change I made was to use 3/4 cup of half & half and 3/4 cup of heavy cream to thicken it up a bit. I’ve made it twice now and it never disappoints!
Thanks for the feedback. This one is a regular on our family’s rotation, especially in the colder months!
I made this last night; we LOVED it! It was so easy to make, too! Definitely will be adding this to our dinner rotation…there were NO leftovers so I might double the recipe next time. Thank you for sharing.
Very good: we don’t do a lot of dairy and figured we were already pushing it with the 4cheese tortellini (gf) I found, so I subbed the half and half with broth and used 3 tbsp gluten free flour as thickener. Use Asiago instead of Parmesan. Very delicious definitely satisfied that pregnancy craving.
Mom of 4 boys here! This was a hit and so easy and fast! I had some sun dried tomatoes and I added those too. Thanks for the great idea!
Thank You sooooo much, I really Love your recipes. They are so easy to make
You are the best.