This warm and comforting tortellini dish comes together in less than 30 minutes with a little help from your grocer’s refrigerated pasta section
I am astounded at the varieties of fresh tortellini there is at my local grocery! I always knew you could get the cheese ones, but my store has some really gourmet fillings.
OK, so chicken isn’t exactly gourmet, but it is different. The kind I got was chicken & bacon. Now when you add bacon to anything, you improve it at least 50% by my way of thinking.
Since I wanted to give the sauce a decidedly chicken flavor, I cooked the tortellini in some tasty chicken stock and cooked it in the skillet I was going to prepare the rest of the dish in. This way, I had no extra pots and pans to clean. The chicken stock not only cooked the pasta, but it formed the base of the creamy sauce in the final dish.
You have to use a rich-tasting stock. I find that College Inn Bold to be very good tasting. Knorr concentrated (the stuff that comes in the little tubs) is very good too. I do make my own, but frankly, some of these store-bought stocks taste almost as good, so I figure why bother.
- 1 large pkg refrigerated chicken tortellini
- 3 cups rich chicken stock (i.e. College Inn BOLD Rotisserie)
- 1 cup light cream -or- half and half -or- whole milk
- 2 cups broccoli florets (frozen or fresh)
- ¼ cup flour
- ½ cup water
- 2 strips crisp-cooked bacon, diced
- In a very large skillet (12-inches minimum) heat chicken stock to boiling.
- Add the tortellini, cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 8 minutes.
- Add the broccoli florets, cover and cook until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add the cream; stir well to combine.
- Mix the flour and water well so there are no lumps
- Raise heat to medium and when liquid is hot, stir in the flour/water mixture.
- Stirring contantly, bring sauce to boil; reduce heat and cook for 5 minutes.
- Top with diced bacon
How many ounces is a “large” package???
There’s probably about 4 cups of tortellini in it. The weight varies by variety.
It seems like you leave the tortellini in the dish from start to finish. Isn’t that a bit long for cooking them? Or is that normal for refrigerated tortellini?
The filling in the variety I used was pretty dense. That was how long it took to get heated through and the pasta part to cook.