Food/sauce to go with tortellini?

Ok, I'll give you one of my favorite pasta sauce cheats but SHHHHHH I'm a good cook and this might tarnish my reputation lolol. But it really is so silly easy and yummy. Ironically I made it last night with gnocchi. Ok I'm about to whisper so listen carefully....toss the pasta with butter (I usually use I Can't Believe it's Not Butter and it's pretty good) then sprinkle with Hidden Valley Ranch DIP mix. Be sure it's the powdered dip mix NOT the dressing as the flavors are totally different. This mixes up in a few seconds and it's really yummy.

If you do want to buy a marinara to coat the pasta w/a red sauce, I'd suggest Classico Traditional Sweet Basil in the square jar in most every supermarket. It's one of the few jarred sauces that i will eat. It's got chunks of tomatoes and the basil gives it a great flavor. I've tried other varieties from that company and wasn't happy with them. I sometimes add in some extra garlic and if I have it a few more fresh basil leaves, but it's great alone..

Now, since you want to venture into cooking, here's another great and simple tip for pasta, and for that matter other foods. Get some flavored cooking oils. My favorites are basil, roasted garlic and lemon. You're instantly adding flavor from the get go. Finely chop some garlic (i'd suggest investing a couple bucks in a garlic press...you'll save a ton of time and the results are better), add the garlic to the oil (if you don't have flavored use regular extra virgin olive oil). Saute (heat up stirring) over medium heat and don't let garlic brown. If you really want it to be good add a few shallots. They have a lovely taste...a cross between garlic and onion but milder. Then toss the pasta with this. Also works well with chicken, or even fish. (For fish I'd bake it and pour this over it). Super simple but very tasty. And I use the basil oil to sear a steak with and the results are GREAT. I've talked folks through that in a past answer, let me know if you want it. Everyone should know how to make a good steak, and this really adds flavor and is also super simple.

Actually a small steak or a chicken breast would go really well with some tortellini. I'd also suggest you invest in some mixed spices seasoning blends. They are you friend for making tasty baked foods. Be sure to check out the McCormick's grilled seasoning blends...they work in the oven quite nicely too! The garlic onion is great on baked chicken, as is the mesquite something or other (I'm out or I'd give you the exact name). I'd also suggest you buy a bottle of McCormick's broiled steak tenderizer seasoning. I use it on every steak I make (except teryiaki). It adds just the perfect flavor. Sprinkle on meat and let it sit about 10 minutes at room temp, then you can add other seasoning or spices per your taste, ie some garlic powder and onion powder is great on a steak.

Well, I'll start you off with 3 super simple methods for your torellini that as I said will work with all pastas, not to mention real food if you get bold lol. I feel confident that all 3 will be tastier than how you've done em (and btw I think pre-made Alfredo is about as good as eating Elmer's glue lolol).

If you want any more easy recipes that involve simple basic cooking (which I'm sure you can do...if you can read a recipe you can cook it!!! Honest!), just ask! But least you won't starve until them. And SHHHHHH w/ the Ranch dip tip. Some of my friends would be horrified lolol. BTW it's killer sprinkled on popcorn FYI!

ETA just thought of one other super easy meal to fix, long as you like mixing a sweet fruit taste w/meat (I love it). It works great on both skinless chicken and pork. Before baking I salt and pepper whichever I'm making, then spread a layer of apple butter over the top. It also acts like a seal so it traps the moisture in! Many markets carry it, and the Cracker Barrel sells a great one in it's store. Also if you have a Trader Joes they seasonally carry pumpkin butter and that's a great similar alternative. The best is to get some in Amish country where they make it fresh and have all sorts of different fruit flavors ie Peach Apple butter etc. But you can start w/the basic! So that's another thought for an 3easy meal that has virtually no prep or cooking needed but tastes really good!!!

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Food/sauce to go with tortellini?

So I recently had a friend serve me some tortellini for dinner and greatly enjoyed it, so I decided to buy some to cook up myself. Unfortunately I do not know what he served with it and haven't talked to him in some time. The first time I made my own, I just ate it plain and it just was that,...

Marinara/Italian Pasta Sauce

Meatballs/Italain sausage

French Bread/Garlic bread

If you want to keep it simple, I suggest freshly grated parmesan cheese on top, with a drizzle of olive oil and some pepper. Ooh and some garlic bread. If you want to spice it up, I suggest you you drop the cream sauce and use some green pesto with some freshly sliced chili. Olive oil and pepper and garlic bread would make it that much better. P.S. Don't underestimate the power of pesto, it has a really great, strong taste.

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Try adding a little chopped sundried tomatoes, a good quality frozen peas and either chopped prosuitto or fried crumbled bacon. Make a garlic bread and a salad.

Zucchini is commonly looked at as a veggie, and in layman's parlance, of course, this is far more useful; however, by tight definition, the zucchini is a fruit, being the swollen ovary of the zucchini flower.

marinara, or just garlic butter sauce

tortellini would go great with this dish I make called "chicken scallopini"- and I can give you a simplified version of that.

First, as far as "ingredients", you will need chicken breast tenders (I would suggest about a pound). You will also need olive oil, mushrooms (a small can of mushroom pieces will work fine), a can of chicken broth, heavy cream (a pint carton is fine, you'll need a total of about 1 1/2 cups, it looks like a carton of milk and may be labeled "heavy cream" or "whipping cream"- but is NOT the same as "whipped cream", which has sugar added). For your seasonings, the ground/powdered kind you can get at the grocery store will work fine. You need garlic powder (not garlic salt), onion powder, sage (this is important), thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper. You also need some flour (about 2 cups).

As for equpment, you will need a large skillet or frying pan, a medium sized bowl, a plate or two (for when you are getting your chicken in and out of the pan), and it's also helpful to have a large heavy ziplock bag and a meat mallet. If your skillet doesn't have a lid you will need some foil to cover it with for the sauce. And don't forget you need utensils, at very least a couple of forks, but I find tongs helpful for turning the chicken, and a wisk is great for the sauce, but not essential.

Okay, first you need to pound the chicken- you can use a meat mallet if you have one, or if not a heavy pan will do. I generally put the chicken into a heavy ziplock bag to keep bits of it from splattering my kitchen :-) you should pound each piece to about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness.

Then you need to prepare your flour mixture. in a medium sized bowl (one that leaves you a bit of space to mix the flour), put your 2 cups of flour and add (these measurements are all APPROXIMATE- feel free to add a bit more or less of anything you choose) 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp black pepper, 2 tsp sage, 1 tsp each of thyme and rosemary, 2 tsp garlic powder and 1 TBsp of onion powder. stir it around ( I use a fork for this) until it's all blended in.

next, you will need to DREDGE the chicken. This is simply coating it with the flour mixture- when you do this, do your best not to stack the coated pieces any more than you have to, since the flour mixes with the moisture on the chicken and makes a very glue-y substance. So you basically just put your pieces of chicken, one at a time, into the flour mixture and turn them over so that the whole piece gets really well coated (not thick coating, just thorough).

When you get them all coated, then you put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a big skillet. put it over medium/high heat until it just starts to get a little wavy or shimmery on the surface (if it starts to smoke you need to turn your heat down, then you'll be ready to put the chicken in). Then you put the chicken in the skillet- but not all at once. Depending on the size of the skillet you will most likely need to brown the chicken in a few separate batches. leave just a bit of space between the pieces of chicken so that you can move them around a little. they will need to brown for 2 or 3 minutes on each side (don't worry about them being cooked through, they will be going back on the heat for awhile with the sauce). Add more oil to the skillet between batches if you need to.

Once all the chicken is browned, remove it from the pan onto a plate, add about a teaspoon of oil to the pan (unless there is already that much oil still in the skillet), and about a teaspoon of the remaining flour mixture. let that bubble for a minute or two, stirring it the whole time. if it gets kind of dry and pasty like, add a bit more oil. Also depending on how thick it is you might want to whisk in (or stir in briskly with a fork) just a few tablespoons of water to loosen it up a bit.

Okay, so now you make the sauce (very easy)- using the same skillet with all the brown bits and flour/oil mixture still in it, add about 1 and 1/2 cups of the chicken broth and bring that almost to a simmer. Now you add 1 and 1/2 cups of the heavy cream, the small can of mushrooms- drained, and 1 tsp each of salt, garlic powder, and onion powder, 1/2 tsp of sage and thyme, and 2 tsp of pepper and onion powder. stir until the spices are blended in (a wisk works well for this, or a fork). now you bring your chicken back into the pan. Add all of it this time and move and turn it until as much as possible is submerged in the sauce. Now you cover it (I don't have a lid for my big skillet so I use aluminum foil for this and it works great), make sure the heat is on medium, and let it simmer- usually about 45 minutes to an hour. Just until the sauce begins to reduce and thicken a bit (but once it comes to a simmer do not let it go less than 20 minutes- to make sure the chicken gets thoroughly cooked). You will need to check on it occasionally (every 5 to 10 minutes) to stir and make sure the sauce isn't sticking, and you may want to re-arrange the chicken a couple o