Cheesy Baked Tortellini

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.

Easy Cheesy Baked Tortellini-this baked pasta dish is easy to make and is always a hit at our dinner table! It also freezes beautifully! 

Easy Cheesy Baked Tortellini Recipe on twopeasandtheirpod.com

It is officially Fall so we are busting out the comfort food! This Easy Cheesy Baked Tortellini is the ultimate comfort food and one of our favorite meals. We love it for many reasons…it is easy to make, is loaded with cheese, and it freezes well! It is great for weeknight meals or entertaining. It is just good all around! You can’t go wrong with this pasta dish!

Easy Cheesy Baked Tortellini Recipe on twopeasandtheirpod.com Love this easy baked tortellini! It's one of our favorite dinners!

Easy Cheesy Baked Tortellini Recipe on twopeasandtheirpod.com

This is one of the freezer meals we made before Maxwell was born and it was SO hard to put it in the freezer. We wanted to eat it on the spot! I knew it would come in handy later though, so we refrained. I only shed a few tears as I was putting it into the freezer container.

Easy Cheesy Baked Tortellini Recipe on twopeasandtheirpod.com

I am glad we waited because we loved pulling this Easy Cheesy Baked Tortellini out of the freezer when we got home from the hospital. We needed comfort food!

Easy Cheesy Baked Tortellini Recipe on twopeasandtheirpod.com

I am sad we already ate the tortellini we stashed away in the freezer, so I am making this pasta dish again this week! The recipe is simple so I am confident I can tackle it with a newborn and toddler running around:)

Easy Cheesy Baked Tortellini Recipe on twopeasandtheirpod.com

We love this pasta dish because it is saucy, cheesy, and even has some good for you greens! If I don’t have any of my Easy Marinara Sauce on hand, I like to use DeLallo’s Marinara Sauce. I usually don’t like jarred sauces, but DeLallo’s sauce is the real deal. We love using it when we are feeling lazy and want to keep things simple. DeLallo’s Marinara is so good in this recipe!

Easy Cheesy Baked Tortellini Recipe

The recipe has triple the cheese…cheese tortellini, mozzarella cheese, and Parmesan cheese. We don’t mess around!

Easy Cheesy Baked Tortellini Recipe

Layer all of the ingredients in a 9×13 pan and bake until the cheese is bubbling! Grab a spoon and dig into the cheesy goodness…or you can freeze it for later…or you can take the pan to a friend who just had a baby. Trust me, they will appreciate the meal:) This is the kind of casserole dish everyone will accept with open arms and a smile:)

Easy Cheesy Tortellini Bake, make it for dinner tonight and then add it to your regular dinner rotation. I know you will fall in love after one bite!

And head on over to Gimme Some Oven for another delicious pasta recipe, Chicken Parmesan Baked Ziti! Yay for easy pasta dinners!

Easy Cheesy Baked Tortellini Recipe on twopeasandtheirpod.com

Email Yourself This Recipe
Just enter your email and get it sent to your inbox! Plus, you’ll get NEW recipes from us every week!

Easy Cheesy Baked Tortellini

This pasta dish is a favorite at our house! It is easy to make and freezes well too!
4.39 from 13 votes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 6 cups fresh spinach leaves
  • 3 1/2 cups Marinara Sauce
  • 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • Dash of crushed red pepper flakes
  • 2 tablespoons freshly chopped basil
  • Salt and black pepper, to taste
  • 2 (20 oz packages) refrigerated cheese tortellini
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
  • 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, divided
  • Freshly chopped basil, for garnish, if desired

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
  • In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook and additional two minutes. Stir in the spinach and cook until spinach wilts and shrinks down. Stir in the pasta sauce and diced tomatoes. Add the oregano, dried basil, red pepper flakes, and fresh basil. Stir and season with salt and black pepper, to taste.
  • Pour ½ cup of the sauce on the bottom of the baking dish. Add half of the tortellini to the dish and spread out evenly. Top with more sauce, just to cover the tortellini. Sprinkle 1 cup of mozzarella cheese over tortellini and sauce. Next, sprinkle ¼ cup of Parmesan cheese over the mozzarella cheese. Add the rest of the tortellini to the dish in an even layer. Top with remaining sauce. Sprinkle the rest of the mozzarella and Parmesan cheese over the top. Garnish with fresh basil, if desired.
  • Spray a sheet of aluminum foil with cooking spray and cover baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil from pan and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until cheese is completely melted and bubbly. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Notes

Note-this pasta dish freezes well. You can serve in individual freeze containers and reheat in the microwave or freeze the entire pan and reheat in the oven.

Nutrition

Calories: 173kcal, Carbohydrates: 11g, Protein: 11g, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Cholesterol: 26mg, Sodium: 931mg, Potassium: 636mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 7g, Vitamin A: 2904IU, Vitamin C: 20mg, Calcium: 281mg, Iron: 3mg

Have you tried this recipe?

Leave a comment below and share a photo on Instagram. Tag @twopeasandpod and hashtag it with #twopeasandtheirpod

Disclosure-this post is in partnership with DeLallo, but our opinions are our own.

Get the best of the best!
4 Recipes Guaranteed to be New Favorites

Maria

I'm Maria and my husband is Josh. We share a love of cooking, baking, and entertaining. We enjoy creating recipes that are simple, fresh, and family friendly. We love sitting around the table with good food, good conversation, and good friends and family! Our kitchen is always open!
Read More

Vegetarian Kid Friendly Main Dishes Maria's Favorites Pasta

Other recipes you may like

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Comments

Leave a comment

  1. I just made this for dinner and it was really tasty and simple to make. I prepared the dish earlier in the day and baked it at dinner time. Next time I make it I will add about 10 minutes to my cooking time as some of the tortellini did not cook completely, probably because it was refrigerated for several hours before baking. I will absolutely make this again for my family. Thank you for the yummy recipe!

  2. I made this recipe the other night and my family LOVED it!!! It really was so easy to make and adjust if needed, definitely a new family favorite 😀

  3. Hi Maria! Love your recipes! I’m wondering if 3 lbs of cheese tortellini is a typo. I buy the Buitoni brand. It would be the equivalent of a little more than two large packages and that seems like a lot. Making a huge batch for freezer meals this week and would love your feedback!

    1. We used that much for a 9×13 pan. It is a full/big pan! If you want to use 2 (20 oz) packages, that should be fine too!

  4. Sounds awesome – WONDERING if I could use frozen tortellini or dried????

    …I noticed two other people asked these questions separately – but you did not respond in the feed??

    If you don’t know that’s cool – but a response would be helpful!

    thanks!!

    1. Yes, you can use frozen or dried. You might want to cook it first…or at least cook it longer in the oven so it cooks all the way through. Enjoy!

  5. I made this today and was VERY excited b/c my family loves tortellinis! I thought why pay more for fresh tortillis for a casserole and instead bought frozen and defrosted them….. Whoops! I even made the spaghetti sauce through her recipe but this casserole SUCKED! The tortellinis were tough! It was very sad but 3/4 of this went down the disposable because no one was going to eat any of the leftovers! Don’t know what went wrong but don’t try with frozen tortellinis and expect good results!

    1. 5 stars
      As she stated in November (3 months before you tried this) you may need to first cook the tortellini if you are using dried or frozen. I’ve made this with refrigerated, dried, and frozen tortellini and it has been wonderful every time!

  6. Question: Can the same results be achieved with dried,uncooked tortellini instead of ready made refrigerated? Would more liquid be required to reconstitute the dried pasta?

  7. This is an amazing recipe. I used frozen tortellinis. Boiled per package directions. Followed the recipe and they literally melted in our mouths. The kids ate 1/2 the dish.

    1. If you are using refrigerated tortellini you don’t need to cook it first. If you are using dry tortellini or frozen tortellini I would cook it first to be safe.

  8. Hi Maria,
    Love all your recipes. Can you use this recipe and instead of tortellini, use ravioli instead?
    Thanks,
    Jayne

    1. Sure! You might want to cook the ravioli first to make sure it gets done all of the way, since it is larger than the tortellini. Enjoy!

  9. Hi!
    Should I take the pasta bake out of the freezer in advance to defrost, or can I just reheat it straight from the freezer? And roughly how long will it take to reheat?
    Thanks!

    1. If you freeze it as a full pan, you can defrost first or put it in the oven frozen. It should take about 20-30 minutes to reheat if it is defrosted and 40-45 if it is frozen. I hope that helps! Just watch it, every oven is different. You just want the cheese to be melted and the pasta heated through! Enjoy!

  10. I am NOT talented in the kitchen, but after making your easy black bean dip recipe, I came back to your site to find something to make to take to a potluck – this recipe sounds perfect!!!

  11. I’m sad to say, I was a bit disappointed 🙁 The sauce turned out delicious! I was so excited for this dish. Unfortunately, there was not nearly enough sauce for all the (pricey) refrigerated tortellini. At over $5 per bag, it was kind of wasteful. I wish I’d had more marinara on hand to try to fix it up. I’ll definitely make it again (like I said, the sauce was delicious!) but I’ll only use 1 package of tortellini.

    1. 4 stars
      I just put this recipe together and found that 2 20 oz. pkgs. of the refrigerator tortellini was far more than needed. I also ran out of the sauce combo. Thankfully I had another jar in the house. Instead of using a 9X13 I used by a giant lasagna pan which worked well. Am thinking it will need a little more baking time. It does smell YUMMY!!

  12. I’m a sucker for pasta dishes, especially when the weather gets cooler. And this one looks so delicious. Can’t wait to make this myself.

  13. 5 stars
    So easy to make and a definite keeper. We need to watch salt content, so next time won’t add extra. Yummy.

  14. Hello! this recipe looks so good! Could i add ground beef to this recipe? If so would you add it in the sauce?

  15. 4 stars
    Made this last night. Served it with a salad and garlic bread. A huge hit. Definitely will make again. Thank you for a great recipe.

  16. I noticed that other recipes call for the tortellini to be cooked first but yours does not, is that correct?

  17. 3 stars
    I made this for company. The name made it sound as though it would be super cheesy but didn’t really ring true for me. I read all comments ahead of time so I was clued in by one persons comment about it needing more sauce so I uped it  by 10 extra oz  but to my surprise it was still dry. I am making it again for company but this time I will put a little more cheese and definitely extra sauce.  PS.  I had made my own sauce And I think that the diced can of tomato business is an unnecessary step, Just use more sauce.  I will review it again After making it next week. 

  18. I am confused about freezing this dish. Do I freeze before or after baking it? I am making freezer meals for when my daughter has a baby and she already loves this recipe but we’ve never frozen a batch. Thanks!

    1. I like to freezer after baking so it is easy to reheat! Congrats to your daughter. I am sure she will love the meals!

  19. This was great!! I added chicken sweet Italian sausage from Fresh Thyme.
    Easy question- do you freeze it before or after it’s been baked?
    Thanks!
    Beth

    1. Found the answer about freezing in the comments. Tried to delete first comment, but wasn’t successful.

  20. I made this dish for dinner tonight and it was a great success. I used spinach and ricotta tortellini instead of just cheese cheese and, as I was only making it for myself and my husband, I halved all the ingredients. There was enough left over to freeze and keep for another night. It was absolutely delicious and a perfect meal for a cold winter’s night (we live in the southern hemisphere and it’s winter here). Thanks for a great recipe.

    Linda, Melbourne, Australia

See More Comments