Category: tortellini

Tortellini and Basil Shrimp in a Lemon-White Wine Sauce

 

So, let’s say you go to the grocery store and shop for the week, then get to the checkout aisle and only after the checkout girl starts ringing you up, realize that you’ve forgotten your wallet back at the office, and have to leave everything there. Then, let’s say you go back home and wing a recipe by putting cheese tortellini, lemon, shrimp and basil together, make a lemon-white wine sauce with a little butter and parmesan, then sit down for a really delicious meal that’ll knock your socks off and only leave you with one pot to clean. Who needs a wallet anyway. It’s Monday. This is a great recipe to start the week.

ONE-POT TORTELLINI AND BASIL SHRIMP IN A LEMON-WHITE WINE SAUCE (serves 3-4 as a side; 1-2 as a main) 
– 1 lb. shrimp, frozed, uncooked, peeled & deveined, tails off 
– 1 12-oz. bag of frozen tortellini
– zest of 1 lemon 
– juice of 2 lemons (divided) 
– 2 tbsp. butter 
– 1 tbsp. EVOO 
– 4 cloves garlic, chopped 
– Bunch of fresh basil, chiffonaded 
– 1/3 grated parm (use same microplane you used to zest the lemon) 
– 1/4 c white wine 

1. Cook tortellini in salted water in a french oven (I would cook absolutely everything in this), set aside.

2. In the pot that you used to cook the tortellini, melt butter, add EVOO & simmer with the lemon zest on low for 5 minutes.


3. Add chopped garlic and shrimp, cook until pink (2-3 mins).

4. To this mix, add juice of 1.5 lemons, and 1/4 c white wine, then let infuse for another 2 minutes on low.


5. I removed the shrimp at this point and put them on a plate to rest, so they didn’t overcook, then cooked down the wine/lemon/butter/garlic sauce a little bit. When the shrimp cooled, I chopped it up into bite-size pieces. 


6. When sauce is mildly reduced and the alcohol has burned off the wine, add the shrimp & the juice collected on the plate, tortellini (dry – don’t add EVOO or anything, or it won’t stick!), parm, basil, and give everything a big stir.


7.  Remove from heat, cover, let sit to warm up the tortellini and shrimp again (get a salad ready or something – we had it with a green salad topped with my favorite avocado-cilantro dressing).

8. Right before serving, put a little slice of butter in, along with half a lemon, juiced, and a little more grated parm. Taste and adjust seasonings, and enjoy.  


Tortellini Salad with Red Bell Peppers, Parsley, Parm and a Lemon-Artichoke Tapenade (and also, “Cousin weekend”)

Cousin weekend. <3


Every summer my cousin Erin and her husband Brian host our little group of cousins on my dad’s side at their weekend place in Brigantine, NJ.  We’re all super into cooking, so the weekend is usually a little bit schmorgasboard, a lot bit Erin’s amazing margaritas, beach, boating, catch-up, recipe swap. It’s one of my favorite weekends of the year and this year was no exception.  Even when the power went out (in AC. In the casino. Slot machines were the only thing that didn’t miss a beat).

My contribution was a Tortellini Salad – it takes about 10 minutes to make, keeps really well, and is something you can bring to the beach with you since it won’t go bad if it gets a little warm. I used to eat a version of this all the time when I lived in Bozeman, Montana – their Co-Op Market made this and I loved it – until I realized I could throw it together myself. This even passes the K. Haggs test, which for all of us who know her particular eating preferences, is saying a lot.

TORTELLINI SALAD WITH RED BELL PEPPERS, PARSLEY, PARM, and a LEMON-ARTICHOKE TAPENADE (makes an enormous bowl that will be a good side dish for 7 cousins over 2 days)
– 2 packages tortellini, cooked per directions
– 1 red bell pepper, diced
– 3 tbsp. flat leaf parsley, chopped (approx.)
– thickly grated fresh parm

Lemon-Artichoke Tapenade
– 2 cans artichoke hearts, drained, and chopped pretty thoroughly
– juice of 1 lemon
– solid 3 glugs of EVOO (or more, if the tapenade is too dry)
– freshly cracked black pepper and kosher salt to taste

1. Cook tortellini per directions. Drain and let cool completely. You can toss the tortellini with a little olive oil to keep it from sticking together.

2. Chop up the artichoke hearts, add to a small bowl. Some people pulse this all together in a food processor, but I like the little chunks of the artichoke hearts that you get by chopping them.


3. To that bowl, add the juice of 1 lemon, then the kosher salt & pepper.



4. Add the EVOO & stir well to combine. Taste & adjust. You want the EVOO to kind of bind everything, not have a pool of it in the bottom of the bowl.

5. Chop up the bell pepper & parsley.


6. Add artichoke tapenade to cooled tortellini, mix well to combine. 

7. Add the red bell pepper, parsley and parm. Stir well to combine. Add kosher salt & pepper if necessary.


Weekend highlights:

Boating on the “Cheeky Monkey”. Brian’s playlist for these rides, every time, just knocks it out of the park. Can you link to Spotify playlists from here? If anybody knows how, let me know and I’ll share the one I copied from him.

Margaritas everywhere (the one in the mason jar came with a “two drink max per person” rule):


Erin’s gorgeous garden – this is seriously one of my favorite spaces in America. She does such a beautiful job with it – there are hummingbirds everywhere, you feel like you’re sitting in the middle of the Secret Garden.


Beach – first time this summer!


Revel Casino  – unreal space




“Snacks”
 


Drive in and out – sunshower, Philly without traffic, dumplings from one of my favorite Philly Chinese restaurants, that perfect moment on the way home with the sun shining and a great song on the radio, when you feel like everything is right with the world.


Thanks Erin & Brian – I love you guys & I’ll see you soon!  xoxo



Italian Tortellini Soup

 I used to live on this and tuna melts in college. I’m not 100% sure why, but I think it probably has something to do with the fact that 1. I wasn’t cooking at all back then 2. This took about 5 minutes to make, 3. it was super cheap and 4. I got to use Sprinkle Cheese instead of the good parm (sorry Mom). The Italians call this “tortellini en brodo”, but even though I’m half Sicilian, we’re sticking with Italian Tortellini soup. It’s great no matter what you call it.

ITALIAN TORTELLINI SOUP (single serving)
– 1 15 oz can chicken broth
– 1/2 – 1 cup frozen tortellini
– Sprinkle cheese (somehow this just holds up better in the soup than fresh parm, probably from all the preservatives. The DELICIOUS preservatives, that is! Oh, college.)

1. In a saucepan, bring the chicken broth almost to a boil.


2. Add the frozen tortellini and stir, then cook according to directions – but undercook them a little, since they’re going to continue to cook in the broth even after you take the soup off the heat.

3. When tortellini are ready, they’ll float to the surface. Remove from the heat, pour into a bowl, and let cool.

4. Stir in some sprinkle cheese and enjoy!