When Foodbuzz threw down the challenge to create an epic meal around Barilla tortellini, my mind reeled with ideas from the absurd (strung like Christmas tree popcorn?) to the delicious. It’s nearly summer and in the San Francisco Bay Area that means an abbondanza of produce–the perfect playground for creative tortellini dishes. The answer?  Center a dinner around tortellini, from start to finish. Days have passed and my “interactive” Barilla tortellini party remains a highlight of Spring!

The dinner theme: Quick, healthy, rustic small plates that a busy home chef could make during the week and for parties, most requiring less than 10 minutes prep time. I used simple, fresh ingredients accessible everywhere. A nice discovery was how versatile pre-cooked tortellini can be to quickly make seemingly elaborate dishes.

Barilla tortellini’s composition of dough and cheese (and sometimes spinach) makes the perfect base for dishes needing those ingredients such as savory pies or casseroles. And as can see at the right, I even tried it for breakfast in a bacon-wrapped tortellini frittata.

Grazie to Barilla and Foodbuzz for this opportunity.

The Big Event

I spent days planning the recipes then invited over my foodie friends to help pull it off, my first experience as a “top chef.”  There’s nothing like good food, pressure to perform, and the spirit of invention to spice up a dinner party: A race against time to photograph the dishes before sunset. Orchestrating multiple dishes to serve at once. No kitchen nightmares here! The tortellini worked perfectly in each plate—and surprised us that even after four courses we were fighting over the dessert. All in all, perfect practice for an even more fun dinner in Italy!

Here’s a quick preview of the dinner, with recipes below:

Appetizer:

The Green Course: Zucchini a la Tortellini Barilla

Entree of Small Plates

:
The Brown Course: Mushroom Pizza a la Barilla Tortellini

The Red Course: Barilla Tortellini-Stuffed Red Peppers

The Purple Course: Barilla Tortellini-Eggplant Parmesan

Dessert

The Caramel Course: Caramelized Barilla Tortellini

Appetizer

Zucchini Rounds a la Barilla Tortellini

The Green Course
This recipe puts a twist on tortellini “a la zucchini” to become a healthy, fun appetizer. Barilla Three Cheese Tortellini fills rounds of large zucchini slices topped with marinara and cheese. If you don’t have access to wide zucchini, you can cut a thinner zucchini lengthwise, core the filling, and lay the uncooked tortellini on the zucchini.

Serves 4.

1 2-to-3 inch diameter zucchini, cored and cut in 4 pieces
1 cup uncooked Barilla Three Cheese Tortellini
2 cups Barilla marinara sauce mixed with 1 cup water
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with oven rack in the middle of the oven.

To core the zucchini:
Cut each end off the zucchini then cut it in half. Using a thin knife, place the knife in the zucchini center then spin the knife to make a coring motion, keep coring to make the zucchini as hollow as possible without cutting through the shell. Needless to say this is not for children!

Slice the zucchini into 2” wide pieces. The number of slices will depend on the length of the zucchini.

Layer 1 cup of marinara across the bottom of an 8” square or round ceramic or glass baking pan (which you can use for serving).

Place the zucchini slices in the marinara then fill each with dry tortellini.
Top each slice with the remaining marinara sauce. It will absorb water from the mixture to cook. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on each slice.

Bake 45 minutes or until a fork easily penetrates the zucchini.

For another meal: Save the zucchini centers to saute in olive oil with salt and pepper. Toss in cooked Barilla tortellini to warm. Serve in a bowl topped with parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. A refreshing light 5-minute meal!

Entree: Small Plates

Mushroom Pizza a la Barilla Tortellini

The Brown Course
Serves 2, or cut each in 4 to share.

These pizzas are literally on large portobello mushrooms topped with Barilla tortellini – a fun, quick weekday meal as the tortellini can be cooked ahead of time or leftover tortellini from another meal can be used.

PREP: Pre-cook the tortellini.

2 large fresh portobello mushrooms
1 cup cooked Barilla Cheese and Spinach Tortellini
1/2 cup Barilla marinara sauce
2 slices provolone or other cheese
1/4 c olive tapenade
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c red or white wine, optional
1 clove garlic

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Toss tortellini in olive tapenade (or pesto if you prefer!)

Peel and cut garlic glove in half, and rub on the smooth side of the mushroom. With medium heat, pour oil and wine in frying pan. Add mushrooms and cook until softened, flipping over to cook both sides, about 5 minutes.

Grease a metal or glass baking pan with olive oil. Place the mushrooms smooth side down. Arrange tortellini on mushroom to cover as a flat layer. Spoon marinara over the tortellini. Lay one slice of cheese (or sprinkle shredded cheese if you prefer) over each mushroom.

Cook until cheese is melted and slightly browned.

Enjoy!

Barilla Tortellini-Stuffed Red Peppers

The Red Course
Serves 4 as a side dish. As a main dish, double the recipe.

2 large red bell peppers
1.5 cups cooked Barilla Three Cheese Tortelli
1 cup Barilla marinara sauce
(optional) zucchini, cubed in small pieces
4 pieces sliced Provolone cheese, cut into 1/4″ wide pieces (or substitute shredded Parmesan cheese)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

With a sharp knife cut the top of each pepper off at the widest point, to create a lid. Pull any veins and seeds out of the pepper by hand.

Mix tortellini with zucchini pieces. Spoon the mixture into each pepper, then top with marinara. Lay or sprinkle cheese on top.

Grease a 9×12 glass or metal baking pan with olive oil. Place peppers in the pan, with the “lids” alongside the peppers to allow the cheese to brown.

Bake 30 minutes on the middle rack until cheese is browned. Pepper will be crispy, which is a nice contrast to the soft tortellini.

Barilla Tortellini-Eggplant Parmesan

The Purple Course
What’s better than layers of eggplant, tomato sauce, and cheese? A layer of Barilla tortellini to add a nice chewy component.

Serves 4.

1 large eggplant, sliced into 1/2” pieces
2 cups cooked Barilla Three Cheese Tortellini
2 cups Barilla marinara sauce
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 c olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

PREP: Pre-cook the tortellini.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a 9×12” pan greased with olive oil, place a thin layer of marinade. Layer 2 large pieces of sliced eggplant, as the base. Drizzle olive oil on the eggplant then spread a layer of marinara then a layer of tortellini. Sprinkle cheese. Add another eggplant layer and repeat, finishing the lasagne with a layer of marinara with cheese sprinkled on top.

Cover with foil and cook for 30 minutes. Remove foil and cook 10 minutes longer to brown.

Dessert

Caramelized Barilla Tortellini

The Caramel Course
By the time dessert rolled around, could we eat The Caramel Course? Several more guests arrived just in time for dessert. They literally fought over the dish, marveling at how the Three Cheese Tortellini’s slightly tart filling married so well with the caramelized coating.

PREP: Pre-cook 2 cups of Barilla Three Cheese tortellini without adding any salt to the water.

Serves 4.

Your guests will be surprised at how delicious the caramelized Barilla Three Cheese Tortellini was. The cheese offsets the decadent caramel with a slightly tart and savory flavor. Topped with whipped cream, it makes the perfect easy dessert.

Heat

2 cups cooked Barilla Three Cheese Tortellini
1/4 cup sugar
3-to-4 tablespoons cream

Sprinkle sugar in a 9″ saute pan at medium-high heat.  Let caramelize.  Make sure it gets evenly cooked, stirring with a wooden spoon if necessary.  When the sugar starts to smoke, start pouring in cream, whisking to make sure sugar is melting into the cream and not sticking to pan.  Bring to boil and toss in tortellini. Bring back to boil, then turn down to simmer as you “saute” the tortellini.  Make sure they are completely coated as they cook in the caramel and take on a golden hue.

Serve in bowl either over vanilla ice cream or topped with creme fraiche or lightly sweetened whipped cream. Optionally top with sliced strawberries.

In Winter, try serving with grated nutmeg and no fruit. The nutmeg accents the cheese-filled tortellini well.

Getting In the Spirit on the “Set” of the Barilla Tortellini Dinner Fest

How do you develop a food product? The same way you develop a recipe – by winging, testing, and perfecting!

I’m thrilled with the result of my Italian Onion Soup ala Barilla Tortellini, created for a Foodbuzz Italy trip contest. I was already a fan of caramelizing red onions – and in fact think caramelized onions could be a food business in itself – when the idea of “Italian Onion Soup” (“French” onion soup with an Italian twist) using Barilla Three Cheese Tortellini came to mind.

The tortellini makes this onion soup more substantial as a meal than the bread and cheese-topped style of onion soup. Using the one pot fits with Barilla’s goal to help families cook quickly. It’s a bit longer than the simple boiled pasta but a fun twist for a party or any dinner.

I love everything Italian, and it was fun to marry the Barilla pasta with California’s bounty, using rosemary from down the street (I’m sure my neighbor won’t miss it!), Napa red wine, and California olive oil. When I’m in Italy it will be fun to re-create this using all Italian ingredients!

Servings: About 4 primi sized; or 2 full meal size

Time: 30 minutes total

Equipment: You’ll need a broiler-proof saucepan.

Ingredients

1 cup Barilla Three Cheese Tortellini
1 medium red onion, cut in half and sliced thin
2 cups warm water
1 c grated or shredded parmesan cheese (parmigiano !)
2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T red wine, of any quality – it still does the trick!
1 T sea salt
1 T ground black pepper
1 T chopped fresh or dried rosemary
Rosemary for garnish (optional)

Pour olive oil and wine in a broiler-proof sauce pan (generally non-stick pans will not work). Add onions and cook over medium heat.

Caramelize the onions stirring frequently until they are translucent, dark, with some crispy brown on the edges. The darker the onions, the sweeter and more flavorful they will be. Remove from the heat.

Slowly add 2 cups of water to the onions. (It will smoke for a second as the water hits the pan.)

Pour the 1 cup of tortellini plus salt, pepper, and rosemary into the onion soup mixture.

Cook for about 10 minutes. Add a little more water if you’d like a more soup-like dish. (Most of the water will be absorbed by the tortellini – which gives it a mellow onion flavor.)

Cook over medium heat until tortellini is done, about 10 minutes. In the meantime, pre-heat your broiler. See how it's nice and brown from absorbing the caramelized onion heaven?

Pour or spoon 1 cup of shredded or grated parmesan cheese evenly over the tortellini.

Broil for several minutes checking frequently, until the top is browned.

Serve it straight from the pan.

Even better than I expected, with rich onion flavor soaked into the tortellini shell. My friends and neighbors loved it!