If you’ve ever been torn between ordering a pizza or making pasta for dinner, this one-pot Pizza Tortellini recipe is a delicious solution. It’s a fun, family-friendly fusion that combines the cheesy, saucy comfort of your favorite pizza toppings with carby-craveable, refrigerated tortellini, all simmered together in a single pot. With minimal cleanup and under 30 minutes from start to finish, this dish is a weeknight win that’s endlessly customizable.
Why I LOVE this recipe, and hope you will, too
I’m not giving up my love of soup anytime soon, but I have to admit, this recipe has been the runaway hit for the last few months here at Casa SoupAddict.
We love pizza. We love pasta even more. And combining the best of both into an easy, fast, weeknight-friendly one-pot dish makes it a winner. I’m using my favorite pizza toppings here, but you can absolutely use yours!
Pizza Tortellini is —
- Fast to the table: It’s ready in under 30 minutes and perfect for busy weeknights.
- A one-pot wonder: This recipe needs just one pot for cooking ease at the stove and minimal cleanup.
- Great for meal prep: It reheats beautifully for lunches, even in the microwave.
- Customizable: Use your favorite pizza toppings
Key Ingredients
Refrigerated tortellini — This partially cooked type of tortellini finishes up fast right in the marinara sauce without absorbing tons of liquids. I used cheese tortellini here, but you can use your favorite (it all works!). If substituting dried pasta, I’d recommend fully cooking the pasta separately before adding it to the dish. Pasta from dried needs a lot of liquids, and it would impact the overall sauce/pasta balance of the dish.
Italian sausage — I absolutely adore sausage pizzas and had to include sausage in this Pizza Tortellini. If you’d like to zest things up, use hot Italian sausage or chorizo.
Onions, peppers, and olives — These are my go-to pizza toppings, and they work wonderfully here to further flavor the marinara sauce. Feel free to add your faves: banana peppers,
Pepperoni — Pepperoni is a must-have pizza ingredient at Casa SoupAddict, and I love it in this pasta dish, too. I use it in two places: (1) while sautéing the aromatic veggies, and (2) sprinkled on top with the cheese before baking to finish the dish. You can easily use turkey pepperoni if you prefer. Or any kind of salami, really.
Cheese — Unless you have issues with dairy, Pizza Tortellini is the perfect dish to go overboard with the cheeses. I love using both aged and soft cheeses here to guarantee lots of flavor with a little stretchy cheese fun thrown in.
Budget-Friendly Tips
Looking at my receipts, this recipe as made clocked in at about $30 for the whole dish, which is pretty decent for a family of four. But you can tweak this easy one-pot dish so that it’s even gentler on your budget:
- Use dried or frozen tortellini instead of the refrigerated brands, which are cheaper sometimes by 50%. Cook the pasta to al dente separately, then add to pot as called for in the recipe, but skip the 5-minute stove top cooking step. To minimize clean-up, you could cook the pasta in the pot first, then drain and transfer to a bowl, and then start the sausage.
- This recipe calls for a pound of Italian sausage, but you could use a 1/2 pound instead and freeze the rest for another meal.
- If you don’t mind doing a little extra chopping, buying whole, pitted ripe olives (black olives) is also about 50% cheaper than pre-sliced.
- I almost always use three different cheeses when I make this recipe for the fam, but you can easily cut that down to two. I recommend an aged cheese (like parmesan) and a melty cheese (like provolone or mozzarella). Cheese grated fresh off the block always tastes best, but it’s usually pretty easy to find packaged shredded cheese on sale from one of the manufacturers.
- The tubes of tomato paste are super convenient but kind of outlandishly expensive. Instead, buy a 6 ounce can and freeze what you don’t use today in ice cube trays
- Skip buying the fresh parsley bunch, and top the finished dish with a sprinkle from the bottle of the dried Italian herbs instead.
Cook’s Notes
- Pan sizing tips: I use my oven-safe 3.5 quart Le Creuset braiser https://amzn.to/4j8TK5h (this Lodge version looks great, too https://amzn.to/4i9qdqR). A 12″ skillet holds 4 to 5 quarts, and is a great substitute for a braiser. A 10″ skillet is slightly small for this recipe, but you can definitely adjust the ingredients down (see next note). You can also use a 4 quart soup pot, but it’s nice to have the wider cooking area of a braiser or skillet.
- If you’re using a slightly smaller pan, simply use a little less tortellini and sauce. Cook the other ingredients per the recipe, and then add the tortellini in a single layer, whatever fits (transfer the unused pasta to a storage container or bag and keep in the fridge). Pour the marinara over the pasta until covered, and you’re good to go!
- Rather than using all soft cheeses, like we might for pizza, I prefer a balance of cheeses, both for flavor and to control the stretchy, stringy nature of melted soft cheeses. The first time I made this dish, the all-mozzarella situation was out of control lol. Strings everywhere! Now, my go-to cheese combo is grated parmesan, romano (both for incredible cheese flavor), and smoked provolone (for a manageable amount of lovely cheesy stretch).
- Why the oven bake at the end? While the cooking of the ingredients occurs on the stove top, baking the assembled dish for a short stretch in the oven at the end pulls everything together. It’s the best of both worlds: sautéing the meats and veggies brings out their best flavors, and then the oven bake thickens the dish and melts the cheese with a lightly golden top.
How to Make Pizza Tortellini
Ready to make the recipe? Skip to the recipe card now to see the full ingredient list, quantities, prep/cooking times, and printable, detailed instructions. Or, keep scrolling for a visual walk-through of making the dish.
Prep
Here are the ingredients that need prepping (not including anything that simply needs to be measured out of a container, such as dried herbs and liquids).
- Onions and green peppers: clean and dice.
- Black olives: slice, or chop if buying whole.
- Pepperoni: slice into smaller, fork-friendly pieces
- Cheese: grate fresh a block
- Parsley: clean and mince.
Step 1: Brown the sausage
Cook the sausage in a bit of olive oil until browned. Break up any chunks with a flat-edged spatula as it cooks. If the sausage gives off too much fat (it might not!), just spoon some of it out.
Step 2: Saute and season the veggies
Saute the onions, peppers, and pepperoni until softened. If the pepperoni gets a few crispy edges in the process, all the better! Stir in the tomato paste and dried herbs with a little water to create a nice and chunky base for the dish.
Step 3: Cook the tortellini in the sauce
Layer on the refrigerated tortellini and cover with the marina sauce. Let the tortellini finish cooking in the bubbling sauce.
Step 4: Finish in the oven
Top with more pepperoni and cover over with the cheeses. Bake uncovered until the cheese is nicely melty. Sprinkle parsley over the top, and serve.
Storing
Pizza Tortellini stores very well in the fridge for 3 to 5 days. To reheat, warm gently over medium heat with a tablespoon or two of water to loosen the sauce. It also reheats well in the microwave.
I hope you’ll get a chance to try my Pizza Tortellini. It’s all-season comfort food here at Casa SoupAddict and a crave-worthy, fast-to-the-table homemade dinner solution for busy families who love pizza and pasta!
Pizza Tortellini
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound mild Italian sausage
- 1 small onion , diced
- 1 small green bell pepper
- 20 slices pepperoni , cut into quarters
- 2 ounces black olives , pitted and sliced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian herb blend
- 1 cup water
- 16 ounces refrigerated cheese tortellini
- 32 ounces marinara sauce
- 8 ounces shredded cheese
- 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Heat the olive oil in a large 3 quart braiser, wide-bottomed pot, or 12-inch skillet on the stove over medium heat.
- Add the sausage, stirring frequently and breaking up clumps, until just browned. If there is a lot of fat in the pot to the point where it pools around the sausage, spoon out some of it.
- Add the onions, peppers, and about half of the pepperoni pieces to the pot. Saute until the onions have softened and the pepperoni has started to crisp up around the edges.
- Stir in the black olives. Spoon in tomato paste and dried herbs, along with a cup of water. Mix everything well.
- Spread the tortellini in an even layer across the pan. Pour the marina sauce over the tortellini, trying your best to submerge the tortellini in the liquid. If they’re still poking through, add more water, a 1/2 cup at a time, until everything is submerged.
- Increase the heat to medium-high to bring the liquids to a light simmer, and let the tortellini plump up for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally to keep the tortellini covered by liquids.
- Distribute the remaining pepperoni pieces over the surface. Sprinkle the cheese on top, and place the pot in the oven, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.
- Remove and garnish with the Italian parsley.