Tortellini Spinach Bake

From Our Best Bites

12 oz bag Barilla Cheese & Spinach Tortelini (find them in the dry pasta aisle)
4 oz bacon or pancetta, (about 4 strips bacon)*
3 cloves garlic, pressed in garlic press or finely minced
2 Tbs flour
2 C milk
¾ tsp kosher salt
⅛ tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp dry basil
¼ tsp red pepper flakes (1/2 tsp or more if you like spicy)
1 medium lemon
2 C loosely packed fresh spinach, roughly chopped
¾ C grated mozzarella cheese, divided
¾ C grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill a large stock pot with water and bring to a boil.  Add tortellini and cook according to package instructions.

Place bacon in a medium sized skillet on the stove-top at medium-high heat.  Cook until crisp.  Remove bacon from pan with slotted spoon and set on paper towels to drain.  Reserve two tablespoons bacon drippings in pan and discard the rest.  Add garlic to pan and cook until fragrant and tender, about 1 minute.  Add flour to pan and stir with a whisk for about 1 minute. Slowly add milk and continue to stir with whisk until smooth.  Add salt, pepper, basil, and red pepper flakes and bring sauce to a simmer.

While sauce is heating, use a microplane grater or a fine-holed cheese grater to zest lemon.  Then cut lemon in half and remove juice.  Add 2 teaspoons zest and 1 tablespoon lemon juice to sauce.  (Note:  I really love lemon so I added this to my tastes.  If you don’t want as strong of a lemon flavor, I suggest cutting it down to 1 teaspoon zest and 2 teaspoons lemon juice) .  Continue to stir until thickened, 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Drain tortellini and place back in stock pot.  Reserve 1 tablespoon of the cooked bacon and add the rest to the pasta mixture.  Add spinach, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese.  Add sauce and gently stir to combine.  Place pasta mixture in an 8×8 or 9×9 baking dish and top with remaining 1/4 cup mozarella and 1/4 cup parmesan and also crumbled bacon.

Cover pan with foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, until cheese on top is melted and pasta is bubbly throughout.  Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Notes from Jill's Kitchen: I keep making this despite the fact that I don't actually really like it all that much. WEIRD! But the thing is, I really want to like it. It has so many elements that I love- especially the idea of the lemon- but there is just something about it... First off, I cannot seem to find a store-bought tortellini that I like. Every single brand that I buy, the filling tastes chalky. Or icky. Or gross. Or all of the above. Even the supposedly super fresh refridgerated ones! Gross. Secondly, this always comes out dry for me. Maybe I need to make more sauce or use 2% milk instead of the 1% that we usually have on hand (or add some cream to the 1%) or even the whole milk that we will someday (in the near future) have for our needy children who apparently will need the calories of whole milk or something. Sheesh. Anyway. I think those are my major beefs with this. All in all, not a lost cause, which is probably why I keep making it. Someday I am going to hit on the right combination and it is just going to sing.