Easy baked tortellini with Italian sausage meatballs

This baked tortellini with Italian sausage meatballs and spinach is a lot quicker and easier than making lasagne and delivers a similar result. This easy weeknight supper is winter comfort food at its best.

I wanted to combine Italian sausages, turn them into bite-sized meatballs and bake them in a rich tomato sauce with the tortellini because this kind of pasta dish is my absolute heaven. 

I used a delicious Sicilian sausage from Giovanni’s which I love. You may have seen my recipe with these sausages and the best-ever warm lentil salad a while back.

To make these meatballs, you simply remove the meat from the casing and pan-fry them off to a golden brown. A lot of the fat gets rendered off which is also good. No other spice is required, apart from salt and pepper and a pinch of chilli if you want some heat.

A large part of the success of this dish is based on the taste of the sausages so you really want to use good quality, flavour-packed ones here. I love the Sicilian because of the fennel flavour profile.

I made a batch of Marcella Hazan’s famous tomato sauce (aka liquid gold). I literally cannot get over how awesome and easy this is to make. It takes about 2 minutes to decant the two tins into the pot with the halved onion and butter.

I’ve found I use a little less than the 70gms of butter in her original recipe, and find around 50gms is good. Let that cook off slowly for 20 minutes then get about making the rest.

Sadly fresh tortellini isn’t readily available in Cape Town, so one has to really hunt them down and store them in the freezer, but I used a dried Italian brand this time and it was delicious. I went for the cheese-filled one but failing that, spinach and ricotta would have been my choice. This was also available at Giovanni’s – my favourite food shop in Cape Town. 

Once you have your sauce simmering away becoming delicious all on its own, then you boil the pasta for about 16 minutes or according to the packet instructions (fresh would be shorter), and you pan fry the meatballs. Everything gets put in the oven covered with Parmesan and fresh mozzarella to bake for about 20 minutes and until bubbling and golden.

To make this dish vegetarian, simply leave out the meatballs and add more spinach.

A few of my other favourite meatball recipes:

Chicken meatballs with Marcella Hazan’s famous tomato sauce

Meatballs with spaghetti & Napolitana sauce

Tortellini with Italian sausage meatball bake with spinach

Meatball & spinach ravioli bake

Pasta in a creamy roasted fennel & onion sauce with pork meatballs & Gorgonzola

A few of my other favourite pasta dishes:

spinach & ricotta cannelloni bake

pasta with broccoli, anchovies and garlic

Creamy chicken with ravioli & spinach

My best pasta recipes

Recipe serves 2 – 3 people (or 4 less hungry ones)

Baked tortellini with Italian sausage meatballs

A delicious dish of Italian sausage meatballs baked with tortellini and smothered in tomato sauce with cheese.

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Tomato sauce:

• 2 tins of Italian whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 large white onion halved
• 40 – 60gms butter – depending on how many calories you are willing to sacrifice
• a good few pinches of good quality sea salt flakes such as Maldon
• Black pepper

Meatball pasta part

• 250 gms tortellini either cheese or spinach
• 400 -45 gms of Italian sausages removed from casings and rolled into small meatballs.
• 3 – 4  cups baby spinach leaves
• pinch of chilli flakes optional
• 1 x ball of mozzarella
• Parmesan to grate

Instructions

• Get the sauce on the go and allow that to cook for about 20 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 180C / 350 F
• Make your meatballs and fry these in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat until golden on all sides. They don’t have to be cooked through. Remove from pan and drain if you want to take off any fat. 
• Get your water to the boil and cook the tortellini according to the packet instructions.
• Once the tomato sauce has been cooking for about 40 minutes, add the meatballs, chilli flakes to the sauce and allow to bubble for about 5 minutes. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper as necessary. Fold through the spinach until it is all wilted. Add the pasta and stir gently to combine. 
• Decant into a buttered ovenproof dish and grate over Parmesan cheese (as much as you would like). Tear or slice the mozzarella into pieces to cover the surface. Bake for 20 minutes until starting to go golden and the cheese is bubbling. Serve with more Parmesan on the side. 

Author: Sam Linsell

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