Cheesy and Easy Tortellini Bell Pepper Casserole

If you want to make sure that your children will eat their dinner tonight without complaints, this is the thing for you. Not only they will eat it, you will probably even get lots and lots of compliments and at least this time it won’t be for making pizza. No, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you fed your kids lots and lots of veggies and they didn’t even complain once. 🙂

I use to hate the taste and consistency of cooked peppers and tomatoes as a child, I wasn’t particularly picky (not compared to my own son not very long ago) but cooked peppers and tomatoes were things invented by the devil in my eyes. I know where that came from. I was a skinny child, not particularly interested in food (Haaa!!!) during my kindergarten times and something I didn’t enjoy eating (like probably lots and lots of other kids) was vegetable soup. And when the lady in kindergarten makes you eat it by taking a tablespoonful of the cold veggies left in your plate, forcing your mouth open with her fingers and shoving everything inside, making you choke on the way, well, it is hard to like those particular veggies for a long time after that. I started eating cooked tomatoes again when I was a teenager and only touched cooked peppers again when I was 24, I remember that very well.

I am glad I got over my trauma, I love cooked tomatoes and peppers now, I use them constantly, but I have to admit I was quite surprised that my children never had anything against the two. Somehow I had just assumed that every child hates cooked tomatoes and peppers and was very happy to discover that that is definitely not the case.

You will love this casserole, do give it a try.

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Cheesy Tortellini Casserole

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  25 mins

Total time:  45 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 450 g/ 1 lbs fresh tortellini or 250 g/ 8.8 oz dried ones (see note)
• 1 medium onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• 4 red bell peppers
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 200 g/ 7 oz cherry tomatoes
• 125 ml/ ½ cup vegetable stock
• 125 g/ 4.2 oz feta
• 125 g/ 4.2 oz grated cheese (Gouda, Cheddar)
• salt and pepper
• basil, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/ 360 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Cook the pasta according to the packet's instructions. Fresh pasta only needs 1 or 2 minutes, dry pasta a lot longer. Drain well and give the pasta back to the pan.
3. In the meantime chop the onion, the garlic cloves and the bell peppers very finely. Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion cubes and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and the peppers and cook about 5 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Add the salt, pepper and oregano.
4. Chop the tomatoes and give them to the pan together with the vegetable stock. Let cook for further 5 minutes.
5. Give the cooked sauce to the pasta in the pan, add the crumbled feta and mix well. Adjust the taste with more salt and pepper if necessary.
6. Brush a casserole form with a little bit of olive oil. Give the pasta mixture to the form and sprinkle everything with the grated cheese.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and heated through. Garnish with some fresh basil if you like and serve with a green salad.

Notes

I used fresh tortellini (not homemade) filled with spinach and ricotta, but you can choose any filling you like. If you only have dry tortellini than cook about 250 g/ 8.8 oz according to the packet's instructions, you will have roughly the same amount of cooked tortellini in the end.

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