Cheesy Baked Tortellini

As of today, nearly five weeks after moving into this house, I have a working stove. Hallelujah!!! Well, actually, it only sort of works. Despite waiting a month to have this stove built, it was made wrong...well, actually, it's the guy who placed the order who screwed up. Mark clearly stated that the stove was going to run on propane, but the guy ordered it for natural gas. So when we turn it on, we get mega-flames. I turned the oven on it's lowest temp and thought I was going to burn the house down. So I stuck with the toaster oven. However, one of the less powerful burners, on low, was perfect for boiling the tortellini. Anyway, the point of all this, is that in celebration of having a working stove and oven, I had planned a super yummy meal (that looked too fattening to bother calculating points, so I apologize) that required the use of both. Oh well, the meal was still super yummy, as planned. It just had to get finished off in the over-used but ever-so-appreciated toaster oven.

Here it is, courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis of the Food Network.

Cheesy Baked Tortellini (?points - if you're counting points you technically shouldn't be eating this anyway...)



Ingredients

* Olive oil
* 2 cups marinara sauce
* 1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
* 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
* 1 pound purchased cheese tortellini
* 2 ounces thinly sliced smoked mozzarella
* 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil an 8 by 8 by 2-inch baking dish.

Boil water on fancy-dancy new Blue Star range.


(yes, this picture is here just to show off my gorgeous new range - and yes, I do have the most wonderful hubby who did all sorts of research and then splurged and bought this for me!)

Chop your herbs.



Whisk the sauce, mascarpone cheese, parsley and thyme in a large bowl to blend. Cook the tortellini in a large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 2 minutes.



Drain. Add the tortellini to the sauce and toss to coat. Transfer the tortellini mixture to the prepared baking dish. Top the mixture with the smoked mozzarella and Parmesan.



Cover and bake until the sauce bubbles and the cheeses on top melt, about 30 minutes. (I forgot to cover mine, and it was still perfect after 30 minutes - in a real oven that probably gets hotter, it might have over-browned though, so you might try to remember this step)

Serve and enjoy!



The verdict? A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. So easy, yet so tasty. Adding the fresh herbs to the jarred sauce makes it taste fresh and homemade. The marscarpone cheese gives it an amazing creaminess. It was delish. Mark had to rush off to church, so we ate without him. Honestly, it was hard to not eat the entire pan - but I knew he'd be disappointed if he got home and there wasn't any left. Next time, I'll make a huge batch...Come to think of it, I only had 10 ounces of tortellini, so I made 3/4 of the recipe. Bad idea. Make the whole thing. I apologize if this ruins anybody's healthy eating plans, but don't blame me. Blame Giada. And the Food Network. And 24-hr Fitness for having the Food Network on while I was running on the treadmill. They are all to blame, I'm just the victim here.