We used our homemade marinara sauce, see link below. You can use store-bought sauce, but most of them are usually too sweet and too thick. If the sauce is fairly thick, you can add some pasta water to thin it down some. Since we eat a lot of pasta, I almost always have a jar or two of sauce on hand. When the kids were still home, I would make marinara every weekend or so. If you need to buy jarred sauce, I recommend Newman’s Own. It’s flavorful and most closely matches homemade.
Over the years, serving these two kinds of tortellini has become a tradition for Christmas or Easter Day meals. Using spinach tortellini with the red and/or white sauce makes not only bring in the Christmas colors but also the colors of the Italian flag!
The filling in this tortellini recipe is cheese, but you can make one or both of them meat filled if that is the preference of you or your guests.
Here’s a link to our homemade marinara sauce. You can make it in about 90 minutes.
Red and White Tortellini
Ingredients
- 3 lb tortellini fresh
- 12 oz marinara sauce
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- Parmesan cheese grated
- black pepper fresh ground
Instructions
- Cook tortellini according to package directions. If you are using two different kinds, spinach and white, keep them separate unless you want them mixed.
- In one large skillet, heat marinara sauce. In another large skillet, heat whipping cream. Heat until the red sauce is warm, and the cream is slightly thickened. When tortellini are cooked, use a slotted spoon to transfer half of the tortellini into each of the skillets.
- Serve with parmesan cheese and freshly ground black pepper for the white tortellini.