Tortellini, with Tomato Basil Sauce

 This is a Farmers Wife original, adapted from Sausage and Tomato Basil Tortellini.

You all know that I've been working to lose some weight recently, but it is really hard to find low calorie meals that my whole family will love, so I've been working to adapt my recipes as much as possible. Now the original is not all that bad for you, but I feel incredibly guilty eating pasta. I love it to death, but that is also my problem... I can't get enough of it!!! haha! I'm sure I'm not the only one out there with this problem, but you get the gist, Me + Pasta = Happy Momma! I've actually changed how I make this recipe quite a bit over the years since I first made it, I no longer add spinach to it, since my Sous Chef loves this dish, however spinach does not like him... Plus the original tomatoes I used are no longer available in my store. But here's the kicker... We actually love it this way better than the original!!! Don't you just love when that happens? It doesn't taste like it's low in calories and fat by any means, which makes my hubby happy, and it doesn't add inches to my waistline which makes me happy, and my little Sous Chef loves anything pasta which also makes me happy. I want to talk about the pasta itself for a minute though, I have started using Barilla's Three Cheese Tortellini found in your pasta aisle, and I really love it. They are smaller tortellini than the original that I used, but are perfect size for my little guys mouth. No more need to cut it, and have it fall apart, which makes it easier for him to feed himself. I highly recommend giving this a try, oh and for you calorie counters out there... 348 Calories per serving on this baby!! YUM!!

Ingredients:

2-3 Chicken Sausages, Sun Dried Tomato
1 12 oz. package Barilla three cheese tortellini
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced Italian tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup heavy cream or whole milk
1 cup 1% milk
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Cook the sausage til browned. Then chop in into bite sized pieces.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the tortellini, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.
While you get the tortellini going, combine the tomatoes, salt, pepper, basil and garlic in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook and stir until the mixture begins to bubble.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, milk and cream. Stir this mixture into the saucepan along with the Parmesan cheese. Heat through, then reduce heat to low, and simmer until thick, about 2 minutes.
Drain the tortellini, but do not rinse, then pour them into the saucepan with the sauce, and add the sausage. Stir to coat, and serve.

Review:

Now I get that this is not exactly a *New* recipe, but it's a redo and I really like it. Plus I'm trying to weed out some of my old pictures as my photography has improved. Anyway, we really, really loved this dinner, all 3 of us which is saying a lot! I hope you'll give this lower cal version of an already great recipe a try! We give this 5 stars.