Zesty Tortellini

Dan (my husband) travels a lot for work and this week he was able to make it home on Tuesday, just in time for dinner. I wanted to make something simple (as I had to work all day), yet filling.  I decided to throw a pasta together and call it Zesty Tortellini. I came up with the super creative name by combining the type of noodle and sauce I used. ;) The pasta turned out just as I had hoped. I'd definitely make it again (but not too soon as it isn't the most healthy dish).

As you can see above, the dish consisted of caramelized onion, goat cheese, tortellini and basil.  Find the recipe below.

Zesty Tortellini
1 pkg. tortellini noodles
1 jar of Green Mill Zesty Arrabbiata pasta sauce
1pkg. Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage
1 clove of garlic
goat cheese
freshly grated parmesan
Italian seasoning
freshly chopped basil
1/2 sweet onion
2T. butter
2-3tsp. brown sugar

First,  you'll need to chop the onion (I sliced and quartered mine). Next, you'll need to caramelize the onion as this is the longest of the steps (find instructions below). Cook the meat thoroughly and strain once fully cooked. Place meat back in the pan, add the pasta sauce, caramelized onion, crushed and chopped garlic clove, Italian seasoning and parmesan. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Once the pasta sauce is warmed up, add the fully cooked tortellini to it and stir (I cooked the noodles while I was cooking the meat). Last, plate the mixed pasta, crumble goat cheese over the top and also sprinkle the chopped basil over the top.

Caramelized Onion
Place butter in the pan, add the onion and sprinkle the brown sugar over the top of the onion (I put a little bit of salt and pepper too). Cook on med. low - low for about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally and leave pan covered when not stirring.