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I love pasta dishes and was on the lookout for a new pasta recipe when I found this one. We don’t eat a lot of tortellini around our house as I don’t know how to make it from scratch and I find it expensive to purchase pre-made at the grocery store. I really wanted to try this recipe so instead of being a cheapo I just bought the tortellini (on sale of course). It was easy to make even though I ended up not making it in the slow cooker. The day I made this did we had a very bad morning (toddler and baby both screaming) and I did not want to even think about making supper until way after it should have been in the slow cooker. I ended up putting it all in a pot on the stove and let it simmer for a couple of hours. I did not read the recipe close enough before I defrosted the hamburger and sausage so I ended up defrosting double the meat that I needed.. I threw in some extra sauce and ended up puttting half in the freezer for another time.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 1/2 pound Italian sausage, casings removed
• 1 (16 ounce) jar marinara sauce
• 1 (4.5 ounce) can sliced mushrooms
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (9 ounce) package refrigerated or fresh cheese tortellini
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

• Crumble the ground beef and Italian sausage into a large skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until browned. Drain.
• Combine the ground meats, marinara sauce, mushrooms, and tomatoes in a slow cooker. Cover, and cook on LOW heat for 7 to 8 hours.
• Stir in the tortellini, and sprinkle the mozzarella and cheddar cheese over the top. Cover and cook for 15 more minutes on LOW, or until the tortellini is tender.

You can find the recipe for this Cheesy Italian Tortellini over at AllRecipes.com

Recipe Alterations

Since I did not read the recipe as closely as I should have I did have to change a few things with this recipe.

1. Used a pound each of hamburger and italian sausage (instead of 1/2 pound of each as called for)
2. Had to increase the sauce as well so I used a larger can of tomatoes as well as a small can of tomato paste mixed with just enough water to make it more of a liquid.
3. Used spaghetti sauce instead of marinara sauce, although I don’t think there is really a difference (I will have to look that up to make sure)
4. I cooked this in a pot on the stove and not in a slow cooker

Family Taste Test

The entire family liked this one a lot and I will be making it again in the near future. I found it had a really good flavor and I think that was because of the italian sausage in it. Next time I might use the hot italian sausage as I only used mild this time around and we prefer our foods a little spicier. I do not think that you necessarily have to use tortellini either, as any pasta would work and it might be fun to try different pastas (maybe a ravioli). Also when I added the sausage to the frying pan I ended up leaving it for a bit because my baby started crying. By the time I got back to it everything was cooked but because I was not crumbling it as it cooked it was in big chunks which I don’t like. I found it really hard to break back down after it had cooked not like hamburger which you can just break up with a fork. Next time I will have to keep a closer eye on it.

My Thoughts

I will be making this again but with a few minor changes to it. I will cook it in the slow cooker just for the convenience factor. I will use fresh, not canned, mushrooms and will probably use more pasta next time around just because I don’t like so much sauce. It was a good simple meal and as a bonus it tasted like more work went into it than actually did allowing me to play the pity card and get my husband to do the dishes by himself because I worked so very hard on supper.

Filed under: Main Dish