Tortellini Spinach Bake in Creamy Lemon Sauce

Ooo I do love this recipe.  If I could sum it up in one word it would simply be: Winner.  This dish is a winner my friends.  Make it once and I can gurantee you will be craving it again.  As much as I would LOVE to take credit for this recipe, I can't.  The gals at ourbestbites get credit for this one...but hey you don't have to tell your husband that you got this recipe off the internet when you try it. Just pretend that this one is your own...Thats what I do anyways and someohow I've convinced my husband that I have knack for cooking.  :). eh heh...if he only knew....

First of all your going to need to start off with some Tortellini.  There are two types I usually buy just depending on whats on sale.  This time I used a generic frozen three cheese tortellini.  You'll find it in the frozen section.  Its usually cheapest.

Or Barilla makes a dry cheese and spinach tortellini that you will find in the dry pasta section.

Cook your totellini according to package directions.  I would cook anywhere from 12 to 19 ounces of it.  Set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

The next step you have two options:

For uncooked Bacon you will need to:

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. 

Or if you want to save time, you can buy and chop up about 4 to 6 ounces of the bacon that is already pre-cooked and just use about two tablespoons of your favorite cooking oil for the next step.

Here you will make the yummy white sauce.  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!.  If you don’t want as strong of a lemon flavor, its suggested to cut it down to 1 teaspoon zest and 2 teaspoons lemon juice, either way season according to taste) .  Continue to stir until thickened, which is about 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Next drain your cooked tortellini that you set aside earlier.  Place the tortellini back in the pot.

Finally, you should reserve 1 tablespoon of the cooked bacon and add the rest to the pasta mixture.  Add chopped 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 the pan with foil and bake for about 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.

Tortellini Spinach Bake in Creamy Lemon Sauce
Recipe by Our Best Bites

12 oz bag Barilla Cheese & Spinach Tortelini or 19 oz frozen tortellini
4 oz 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 (or lemon juice works great as a substitute)
2 C loosely packed fresh spinach, roughly chopped
¾ C grated mozzarella cheese, divided
¾ C grated Parmesan cheese, divided