cheese tortellini with mushroom and spinach sauce

so our friends Jesse and Tamara gave us some fresh tomatoes from their garden a few days ago. i had some frozen tortellini in my freezer, and my kids LOVE pasta. so i thought, i’d combine these powers and make up something tasty. i’ve combined homemade marinara sauce, frozen tortellini from the store, fresh spinach, mushrooms, and red wine. holy crap….so good.

ingredients:
1 package of frozen tortellini (found in freezer section of any grocery store)
4-5 med sized tomatoes chopped into large chunks (with seeds and juicy cores)
small onion
mushrooms
fresh spinach (1/2 a bag)
1/2 cup red wine
crushed red pepper
rosemary (fresh or dry)
butter
3 chopped garlic cloves or 1 tbs of garlic powder
olive oil
salt / pepper  / sugar

heat 2 tbs of olive oil + 1 tbs of unsalted butter in a large skillet on med-high heat. add chopped onion, garlic, salt, pepper, mushrooms. cook for 4-5 minutes until onion is soft.

add tomatoes, salt, pepper, red wine and cook for 10 minutes. keep stirring due to the high heat.

use a potatoe smasher to smash the tomatoes in the pan (be careful because it’s really hot).

add rosemary, sugar,  and crushed red pepper and simmer for about 10 more minutes. then, place on low heat with lid on and let it sit while you prepare the rest of the stuff.

cook the tortellini according to the package. be careful to not overcook the pasta, becuase it will finish cooking when you add it to the sauce later on. only boil for about 5 minutes (see package directions).

when pasta is almost done (al dente), add pasta to the sauce. then gently stir in the fresh spinach and simmer for about 5 more minutes (until spinach is wilted).

serve with fresh grated parmesan cheese. SO good.