Spinach and Bacon Tortellini With Fire Roasted Tomatoes In Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Sauce
Hello! I was thinking about how hard it is for people to find ground beef and chicken right now. This quarantine has all the grocery stores completely bare. I decided to take a look around at what I had on hand, besides ground beef and chicken, and come up with a recipe I could share.
I had frozen tortellini, cheese, spinach, some alfredo sauce and of course, bacon. The Girl Child and I are not huge fans of alfredo sauce, but I use it in some of my recipes. It’s usually combined with marinara sauce in some way. I thought about going that route, combining the 2 sauces, but I decided to do something different. I wanted to build a whole new flavor profile for this dinner.
When coming up with new recipes my thought process is all over the map. I think about the “foundation” ingredients, then my mind starts jumping around to different ideas of what else might taste good in combination with those ingredients.
My biggest obstacle with this recipe was figuring out how to “doctor up” the alfredo sauce so that The Girl Child would approve. I use Classico Four Cheese Alfredo Sauce. The bonus of using this brand is that it comes in these awesome jars that I save and reuse. They are super cool mason type jars with measurements on the side. I love them!
We really enjoyed my chicken-and-spinach-penne-in-creamy-roasted-red-pepper-and-parmesan-sauce, so I decided I would blend the alfredo sauce with roasted red peppers to give it a little different flavor component. Then I thought about the bacon. I was going to fry bacon to use in this dish, why not amp up that bacon flavor a little bit by adding the bacon drippings to the sauce too? Sounded good to me. So, I went with it and that’s how I made this yummy sauce.
Here’s what you’ll need:
1 package frozen cheese tortellini
1 lb bacon (cut into 1 inch pieces)
1 bag baby spinach
2 cans fire roasted tomatoes (drained)
1 jar alfredo sauce
15 oz roasted red peppers
1/2 red onion (diced)
4 cloves garlic (minced)
2 cups Italian cheese
1/3 cup water
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp parsley
Ok. Let’s do this!
Preheat oven to 350°
Spray a 13×9 baking dish with cooking spray. (I use Pam)
In a large cast iron skillet, fry 1 lb bacon that has been cut into 1 inch pieces.
When bacon is starting to brown, add onion and garlic to skillet. Continue to cook until bacon is done.
Remove bacon, onions and garlic from skillet and set aside.
In a food processor, combine alfredo sauce (I use Classico Four Cheese Alfredo), roasted red peppers, 1/3 cup water and bacon drippings. Pulse until peppers are broken down and sauce is blended well.
Place 1/2 of the tortellini along the bottom of the baking dish.
Top tortellini with 1/2 of the bacon and onion mixture.
Pour 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes on top of bacon mixture.
Layer 1/2 bag of spinach on top of tomatoes. Spinach can be cut into smaller pieces if desired.
Pour 1/2 of the sauce over spinach and spread out.
Sprinkle 1/2 tsp garlic powder and 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning over sauce.
Top with 1 cup Italian cheese.
Repeat layers one more time, finishing by topping final cheese layer with parsley.
Cover dish with foil and bake for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, remove foil and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes, until cheese begins to brown.
Serve this with some garlic bread and a salad, you’ll feel like you got takeout from an Italian restaurant!
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Thanks for stopping by!
Spinach and Bacon Tortellini With Fire Roasted Tomatoes In Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 package frozen cheese tortellini
- 1 lb bacon cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 bag baby spinach
- 2 cans fire roasted tomatoes drained
- 1 jar alfredo sauce
- 15 oz roasted red peppers
- 1/2 red onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups Italian cheese
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp parsley
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Spray a 13×9 baking dish with cooking spray. (I use Pam)
- In a large cast iron skillet, fry 1 lb bacon that has been cut into 1 inch pieces.
- When bacon is starting to brown, add onion and garlic to skillet. Continue to cook until bacon is done.
- Remove bacon, onions and garlic from skillet and set aside.
- In a food processor, combine alfredo sauce (I use Classico Four Cheese Alfredo), roasted red peppers, 1/3 cup water and bacon drippings. Pulse until peppers are broken down and sauce is blended well.
- Place 1/2 of the tortellini along the bottom of the baking dish.
- Top tortellini with 1/2 of the bacon and onion mixture.
- Pour 1 can of fire roasted tomatoes on top of bacon mixture.
- Layer 1/2 bag of spinach on top of tomatoes. Spinach can be cut into smaller pieces if desired.
- Pour 1/2 of the sauce over spinach and spread out.
- Sprinkle 1/2 tsp garlic powder and 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning over sauce.
- Top with 1 cup Italian cheese.
- Repeat layers one more time, finishing by topping final cheese layer with parsley.
- Cover dish with foil and bake for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, remove foil and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes, until cheese begins to brown.