Cheesy Italian Tortellini Recipe

This turned out to be one of the best meals I ever made. Here are my adjustments: 1 lb ground turkey browned with a clove of garlic, 1 cup chopped turkey pepperoni, 1 jar Ragu Italian Sausage flavored sauce, 1 can Italian Style stewed tomatoes (I blend smooth), 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp Ital seasoning. I cooked 2 pkgs of the frozen cheese tortellini then put into 13x9 pan. I just didn't have time for the crockpot this particular day. Added some cheese, then poured over the sauce and mixed through and topped with more cheese. Bake till cheese melts, which is only 5-10 min. Fantastic! Better than any other Italian dish I have ever made. And easy, too.

This is a solid 4 star recipe and really should be a 5 based on the simplicity in making it. No...it doesn't have to cook all day but isn't that what makes this so great that you can prepare it, be gone all day and only have 15 to 20 minutes dinner prep time when you come home? I love that about this recipe. It isn't the "best" italian dish I ever made but then I didn't spend hours making it and it is still seconds worthy. I used an entire pound of ground beef (with 1/2 pound of sausage) because that is how I package portion my meat and my family are meat lovers. I sautéed the meat with onions and garlic and about 2 tablespoons of italian spaghetti seasoning I bought by mistake one day. I used the whole 24 ounce jar of Prego I bought to compensate for the extra meat and about 15 ounces of refrigerated tortellini...next time I will use 18 ounces. I used parmesan in place of the cheddar. It was very good...thank you for the recipe.

Made this for a potluck at work. Everyone loved it. A few things I did differently though. I used all spicy italian sausage, made the sauce the night before the potluck, and included 4 Bay leaves. The morning of the potluck I put the sauce in a crock pot - cooked it on high for an hour to get it hot and then put it on low for 3 hours. I added frozen tortellini during the last 90 minutes of cooking and put mozzarella cheese on top during the last 30 minutes of cooking. If you like your italian food very cheesy, stir about a cup of shredded mozarella into the tortellini/sauce mix before topping it with the cheese listed in the original recipe. Enjoy :-)

Short on time, I followed other reviewers' advice and prepared our meal on the cooktop. Worked fabulously. Another reviewer suggested using only sausage rather than the blend of meats, so I tried HOT ground Italian sausage only, and I used The "Best Marinara Sauce Yet" recipe from this site as suggested, as well. Amaaaaazing. Can't imagine how fabulous it'd have been had I not forgotten the mushrooms, or had thought ahead enough to cook it in the crockpot. You are right: this one is a keeper and will be on our regular rotation! This recipe is fabulous. Thank you, Tracy!

I made these changes with much success: Browned 1lb ground beef and added to crockpot along with 2 jars spaghetti sauce, 1 pkg frozen onions, 1 pkg frozen green peppers, 1 tsp Italian seasonings, .5 tsp garlic salt, 2 Tbs brown sugar and 1 pkg diced pepperoni. Cooked on low for 8 hours. Served with noodles.

I left out the mushrooms, and added a chopped onion when browning the meat. Everybody loved it. If you brown about 4 times the meat you need, you can freeze itthe extra in appropriate portions and then throw it in the crockpot and make it even easier the next few times. :)

This was fantastic and so easy for a weeknight meal. We used 1# ground turkey because we accidentally pulled it out instead of beef...just added some fennel and additional italian seasoning to the meat along with chopped onion as we browned it. Next time we'll add less cheese, but very tasty.

This is a great comfort food meal. The first time I made it I substituted mozzarella per several reviewers recommendations. It was o.k. The second time I made it, I followed the recipe and used cheddar -- oh my goodness it was *delicious.* Forget the mootz and stick with the cheddar!! Sooo good. After several years of making it, I have made a few minor changes -- I don't use the sausage per family preferences, and instead use 1# of ground beef; I use 3 fresh Roma tomatoes instead of canned; I add about 1/4C red wine. Easy and tasty.

I used more marinara so it would be soupier. I also added some Italian seasoning to the crock pot. And I added some minced garlic while browning the meat. I used 96/4 lean ground beef. Did not add the cheese to crock pot. We just sprinkled some Mozz and Parmesan on top after we scooped it in our bowls. My hubby loved this recipe, thank you very much for it!!

yes i tried this recipie, and no need for crockpot, Used onion and bell pepper, used fresh mushrooms, suated, also a clove of carlic, in garlic press, sausage and small amount of hamburger, also used some italin seasons, used parm and mozzerela, cooked in the oven with marnara,at 350 for about 40 min added defrosted mushroom and chz tortilinni, covered with foil, and then uncovered add rest of chz, no cheddar, yumo! thanx for sharing

From the picture this was not something I was looking forward to trying, but my husband insisted we do. I made a few tweaks along the way.. I used 1lb spicy sausage, just cut it in chucks instead of going thru the trouble of take it out of its casing, I used petite diced tomatoes, meat flavored spaghetti sauce, and 1lb ground turkey instead of ground beef. Instead of cooking the 20oz tortellini in the crock pot, i cooked it separately in boiling water for about 5 minutes, and then added a cup of mozzarella cheese, and a half cup cheddar cheese. lots more flavor, and loved it!! i don't like eating crock pot meals, but we've officially added this to our monthly menu!

This is my 3rd or 4th time making this! I always double it, so we have enough for at least two meals (and so I don't have two half-pounds of meat left over! lol) But I add fresh garlic & onion to the meat as it cooks (we use onion and garlic in EVERYTHING!), and I always add my favorite seasonings of basil, oregano and parsley to make it more "Italian." One time I added chopped black olives too, but I didn't have any today to add. This is just a great base recipe that you can easily adjust to your own preferences. We downright LOVE it!!

Made it after work — quick and tasty.

Made it twice already, no regrets.

I made this nearly as written, I subbed cooked frozen tortellini for fresh/refrigerated and omitted the mushrooms. I also doubled the recipe. I ended up with an uneven ratio of sauce to pasta as written. After taking my pic I had my daughter go to the store and buy another bag of frozen tortellini (19oz) and it was the perfect ratio. Flavor-wise this recipe is heavily dependent on the sauce you use and could use some tweaks to up the flavor. Finally, the cheese doesn't need doubling when the recipe is doubled and we would skip the cheddar in the future for something like parmesan. My family rated this a 3.5-4.5.

Is an excellent recipe the only change that I did was instead of the marinara or red sauce. It goes excellent with a cheese sauce mix with a little marinara other than that everything else stayed the same. I will make this dish again.

I didn't change a thing. It has quickly become my husbands favorite dish.I believe cooking the sauce in the slow cooker all day married the ingredients which pushed the sauce to a higher level.

Awesome recipe! I have prepared this many times for small family meals, large family meals, and retirement parties for up to 50 people (in large roasting . Everyone raves about this meal and asks for the recipe. The only substitution I make is Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage in place of the Italian Sausage.

This was pretty good! I will make it again because it was not only good, but EASY & CONVENIENT! However, I will add some herbs and spices the next time to bump it up a notch.

This recipe is delicious. The only complaint I have is that 9oz of this pasta does not feed 6 people. Even the package says it’s about 2 1/2 servings.