An easy weeknight meal that tastes like you spent hours behind the stove! Lean smoked turkey sausage tortellini with sauteed vegetables in a quick-but-luscious garlic sauce is a real family pleaser, with savory sausage, cheese-filled tortellinis … and lots of veggies to make Mom happy!
With Thanksgiving behind us, we’re looking down the long holiday road, full of parties and gatherings, shopping, cooking, baking, laughing, eating, cleaning, hosting, driving, flying, sightseeing, caroling, snowman-making … and more shopping.
Of all of the above, spending loads of time in the kitchen pulling together regular meals probably isn’t high on your list of things to do. Oh, we want to pull out all the stops on the special events, but for the Tuesday night dinner that you’re simply squeezing in between other things on your calendar, nuh uh.
And that’s where this smoked turkey tortellini vegetable saute enters, stage right.
A little chopping, a little sauteing, and simmering up some refrigerated tortellini, and you’ve got yourself a wholesome dinner. And if you have a little extra gumption saved up in your back pocket, whip up the super easy garlic sauce, and your quick and easy dinner becomes something special. Even on a Tuesday night.
In this beautiful pan of food you’ll find lean smoked turkey, colorful chopped veggies, briny olives — trust me, they are sooo good in this dish — and fresh, cheese-stuffed tortellini. I don’t know about y’all, but by the time we get to carbtastic Thanksgiving, I’m well on my way to being sweet’ed out for the rest of the year, and fast, healthier dishes like this, with a green salad on the side, finish off the day in the best of style.
If it’s just been one of those days (we all have ’em, amiright?), add a splash more olive oil to the pan, plus a dusting of grated Parmesan, and ring the dinner bell. But I do want to give an extra enthusiastic shout-out for the garlic sauce, which just tops this dish with savory yumminess, and is no more complicated than a roux.
And … aaaannndd … this smoked turkey sausage tortellini with veggies recipe can be easily scaled up for when you’re hosting friends and family, and suddenly you have lots of mouths to feed between all the laughing and caroling and snowman-making.
Pro tip for cooking for lots of guests and new friends with unknown dietary preferences: make the dish vegetarian by subbing the smoked turkey sausage with a meatless option, such as one of Field Roast’s sausage products. The folks at Field Roast don’t know SoupAddict from a hole in the ground 😉 but I was a vegetarian for many years, and know and love the Field Roast product line, as do many carnivores!
Karen xo
Smoked Turkey Sausage Tortellini Vegetable Saute
Ingredients
for the sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 2 tablespoons chopped onions
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/2 tablespoons flour or cornstarch
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
for the dish
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 large onion chopped
- 7 ounces smoked turkey sausage sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1 small zucchini, sliced
- 1/4 cup pitted olives, sliced (castelvetrano recommended)
- 9 ounce package refrigerated fresh tortellini, cheese stuffed
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
prepare the sauce
- Heat the olive oil in a small sauce pan over medium until the oil shimmers. Add the garlic and onions and saute until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the butter and stir until the bubbles subside, then sprinkle the flour and stir to create a paste. Pour in the chicken a little at a time at first, mixing thoroughly after each addition, to loosen the paste. Then stir in the remaining broth and the cheese. Reduce heat to low to hold.
prepare the dish
- In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium until shimmering. Add the onions and saute until soft. Add the sausage, bell peppers, and zucchini, and cook for 5 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Meanwhile, prepare the tortellini according to package directions in a large pot (likely, gently boil the tortellini in salted water for about 5 minutes, or until they float to the surface). Drain, or use a spider skimmer, transferring the tortellini to the pan. Gently mix the tortellini with the sausage and vegetable, taking care not to break apart the tortellini. Add the olives and continue mixing.
- Pour about half of the garlic sauce over the dish and stir. Everything should be lightly coated with the sauce, and glistening. Add more sauce as necessary/desired. Finish the dish with a big pinch of salt and several grinds of black pepper.
