Simple, filling, and just as tasty when tossed with jarred sauce as when used in a more elaborate dish, frozen filled pasta can be a weeknight workhorse. I pick up a bag or two of cheese tortellini or ravioli every few weeks so they’re always available when I need a fast dinner.
One such meal is this recipe inspired by my mother-in-law’s version. It takes those workhorse frozen cheese ravioli and adds, well, more cheese — in the form of tangy feta — along with a skillet of saute-softened leeks. These two ingredients, plus pasta cooking water, form a creamy, slightly briny sauce for the rich tortellini in a matter of minutes.
To that base recipe, umami-rich sun-dried tomatoes — and their oil — add complexity. A big handful of chopped fresh parsley lends brightness.
It would be simple to modify these additions to suit the season, your taste buds and the contents of your fridge. Fresh cherry tomatoes and tarragon, blanched asparagus and thyme, snap peas and oregano — each of these combinations would be a delightful twist. You can even swap the tortellini for another shape if that’s what you have on hand; the leeks don’t cling to small ravioli as well as they do larger sizes of stuffed pasta, but the flavor is still spot on.
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