This recipe for tortellini in sun-dried tomato cream sauce, silky smooth and flavoured with basil, is a quick and easy meal ready in less time than you think. A delicious dinner you can whip up in 15 minutes!
Serve with Roasted Parmesan Broccoli with Garlic and Sun-dried Tomatoes. Or explore out Italian Recipe collection for more ideas.
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Some days I just can’t help slacking off in the kitchen or skipping out on trips to the supermarket. But even if my cupboard is almost bare and I don’t have the energy to spend in the kitchen, I still need to get dinner on the table.
Laziness leads to creativity, and in using whatever we have available. In this case, what I had available was a pack of tortellini, something I usually have in my fridge ready for emergencies.
Stuffed pasta is a brilliant kitchen shortcut and a deceptively easy way to get a meal ready in a few moments. Whip up a simple yet tasty sauce, like sun-dried tomato cream sauce, and you’ll have an easy meal that will still go down a treat!
Easy tortellini recipe
I ended up with a very tasty dish that was done in 15 minutes flat and with very few ingredients. Fresh tortellini take as little as 2 minutes to cook after the water boils. And the sauce comes together in the amount of time it takes for tortellini to cook.
This makes this sauce about as easy a way to get dinner on the table as you will find. Grab a package of pre-made tortellini from your local supermarket, whip up the sauce, you have dinner ready to go!
I’ve used this approach in other recipes as well. Check out my Tuscan Tortellini Sauce, Butternut Squash Ravioli Sauce and 5 Minute Ravioli Sauce!
Sun-dried tomato cream sauce
The sun-dried tomato cream sauce itself is delicious and complements tortellini in the most beautiful way. It’s a combination of a basic tomato sauce and cream sauce creates a gorgeous pink sauce. The best of the two worlds of pasta sauces.
So here you have it – quick, inexpensive and not too heavy while still leaving you feeling like you’ve just indulged in a bowl of luxurious, creamy pasta.
Recipe tips and notes
- Stuffed pasta in all its many forms is an amazing option for a quick dinner, and one I reach for often. A sauce like this is an easy way to take a one to the next level. There’s no need to get too fussy about the type of pasta. I’ve used tortellini, but almost any will work, and with pretty much any filling.
- Tortellini cook amazingly fast, which means that dinner can be ready in a hurry but also that you don’t have a lot of time to work with when making the sauce. Have the water boiling and ready for the pasta when you start the sauce and all the ingredients ready for the pan before you begin.
- Both heavy and light cream will work for this recipe, although it’ll obviously be creamier with a heavy cream. If using single cream, skip adding pasta water as it will make the sauce too runny. If the sauce is too loose, simmer until it is at a desired consistency.
- Fresh basil is a great way to add a bit of lightness to the recipe. Dried basil will work as well, but can never be quite the same as fresh.
- It’s easy to add a bit of green, like spinach or kale, to a simple sauce like this one. Check out my tortelloni with creamy tomato sauce and spinach to see how I did it.
- Be sure to save a cup of pasta water before draining the tortellini. It will absorb some of the starch from pasta and is the best way to add extra creaminess to the sauce. Splash a small amount in and stir to combine. Repeat until you the sauce reaches the desired consistency.
- It’s important to use freshly grated Parmesan or other hard cheese, rather than pre-grated cheese. Not only does freshly grated cheese have far more flavour, it also doesn’t have additives put in pre-grated cheese to keep it from clumping. These additives keep pre-grated cheese from melting properly and will prevent you from getting a silky smooth sauce.
Serving suggestions
Creamy sauces are best with a fresh side dish like a green salad. My spring pea and arugula salad will do the job. Or keep it Italian with caprese salad.
And if I really want to boost my popularity at home, garlic bread will always do the trick!
Avoid the temptation to serve the tortellini and sauce separately. Mixing the two together before serving gives the sauce more time to flavour the tortellini and is the best way to make sure that it is mixed fully into the pasta.
Storage and leftovers
Stuffed pasta like tortellini is best eaten fresh and hot. If you do have leftovers, keep them refrigerated for up to 4 days in an airtight container.
Reheating can be done in the microwave. Neither pasta nor cream sauces freeze well.
More Sun-Dried Tomato Recipes
- Tuscan Salmon with Parmesan Cream Sauce with Basil and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
- Mixed Olive Tapenade with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Feta
- Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta with Chicken
- Broccoli Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Parmesan
Tortellini with Sun-dried Tomatoes in Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 250g/1/2 lbs tortellini with any filling you love
- 1 tbsp This is an affiliate link.olive oil from sun-dried tomatoes
- 4-5 This is an affiliate link.sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil
- 2 cloves garlic pressed
- 4 tbsp crushed tomatoes or tomato passata
- 125ml/ ½ cup double cream/heavy whipping cream
- 50g/ ½ cup This is an affiliate link.Parmesan cheese grated
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4-5 fresh basil leaves or ½ tsp dried basil
Instructions
- Cook tortellini in a large pot of salted water according to package directions.
- While tortellini are cooking, slice sun-dried tomatoes and crush garlic. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes in a pan over medium heat and add sun-dried tomatoes and garlic to it, cook for a couple of minutes while stirring without colouring garlic. Add the tomato passata or crushed tomatoes and sliced basil leaves and stir for a couple of minutes, then pour in the cream and stir to blend. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over top and stir until incorporated into the sauce.
- Drain cooked tortellini while reserving ½ cup of water they were cooked in. Add tortellini to the pan, stir gently until coated with the sauce. Then add in approximately 3 tbsp of reserved water until desired consistency, stir gently until combined. Taste and salt if needed. Serve with additional Parmesan cheese.
