Bacon Mushroom Tortellini is so tasty, hearty, and delicious with only seven simple ingredients! The best part is that it comes together in just 25 minutes.
This is something I just threw together one night. I had bacon, but didn't want to make carbonara, had mushrooms, and just got fresh tortellini from the store. Add eggs and parmesan and boom, we had a party. Well, we had dinner, but you know what I mean.
What is tortellini?
Consider it the Italian wonton. Tortellini are ring-shaped stuffed pasta, usually stuffed with pork or cheese (sometimes with other things like mushrooms, too). They're also called 'belly buttons', legend has it that the creator was inspired to make them look like a lady's belly button...I don't invent this stuff, I just tell you what I know.
Traditionally they're made stuffed with multiple different types of pork cuts, parmesan, egg, nutmeg, and served in a broth, but you're most likely to find cheese, meat, or mushroom-stuffed tortellini in your local grocery store either fresh in the refrigerated section, frozen, or even dried in the pantry aisles.
In this we're using cheese tortellini, which is super family friendly. Toddlers and babies love nibbling on cheesy tortellini, and recipes like this is how I got Greyson to love mushrooms so much. Seriously, he even asks for it on his pizza!
What's the difference between ravioli and tortellini?
Okay, apparently this is a question asked a lot, so let's break it down. Ravioli is pulled from the word riavvolgere --"to wrap"-- and forms a little pillow by sealing the filling of choice between two layers of thin pasta. This pillow can be whatever shape you want, round, square, cute little heart shapes, as long as it is a pillow. Hence the nickname 'the pillow dumpling'.
Tortellini --which gets its name from tortello or 'stuffed cake', is one piece of pasta that is wrapped around filling and looks much like an Asian wonton dumpling. It can't be just any ole shape, it must be shaped like a little woman's belly button. No belly button = no tortellini.
Both types go really well with any sauce: red sauce, bolognese sauce, carbonara-style, alfredo, pesto, you name it. But tortellini is the one that can go into a broth soup. So...like I said, Italian wonton.
Making Bacon Mushroom Tortellini
I love a carbonara style sauce: bacon, egg, shredded parm, it's so good. This is no different, but I can't call it carbonara because it's not and also because the Italians will come after me again.
It's a simple recipe needing minimal ingredients, so it's perfect for weeknight, but it's heartiness from the mushrooms and rich comforting sauce is what makes this a great dish. I serve it both as a main dish with a salad or as a side.
My favorite dishes to serve this tortellini recipe with:
All you need is bacon, mushrooms, onion, garlic, parmesan cheese, an egg, and tortellini. Just seven ingredients and 20 minutes for dinner, and it's all so easy.
Crisp up your bacon, we're using the fat left in the pan to cook the mushrooms, onions, and garlic. Flavor? It's on line one, darling.
After that, it's all about mixing the parm and egg together, splashing a little pasta water in for good measure, and adding that into the pan with the tortellini.
Fresh tortellini is so fast to cook maybe 3-5 minutes --not too much or they'll start opening up-- and they're ready to be tossed with the bacon, mushrooms, cheese mixture, and some salt and pepper.
This is easily a meal prep dish, bacon mushroom tortellini lasts for 4-5 days in the fridge and fits into a busy meal plan, especially if you're a morning or night-before prepper like me. With all the ingredients chopped beforehand, this dish could actually be done in less than fifteen minutes!
Looking for more Pasta Recipes? Check out:
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Bacon Mushroom Tortellini
Ingredients
- 8 strips thick-cut bacon, diced
- 8 oz baby Bella mushrooms, quartered
- ½ medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 3-5 cloves garlic, minced
- 18 oz fresh three cheese tortellini
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Start a large pot of salted water over high heat to boil.
- In a large cast-iron skillet or large pan, cook the bacon over medium-high heat to desired crispness. Once crisp, remove the bacon onto a paper-towel-lined plate.
- Turn heat down to medium and add the mushrooms and onion to the same pan. Let cook, stirring occasionally to ensure nothing burns, for 7-8 minutes or until the mushrooms and onions have gained color and cooked down a bit. Add garlic during the last minute of cooking, stirring to mix the garlic with the vegetables. Season with about 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper and take the pan off the heat.
- Once water is boiling, add tortellini to the water and cook according to package directions.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolk, and parmesan cheese until well combined.
- Add bacon back into the pan, add the hot pasta, and add the cheese mixture. Splash in a couple of spoonfuls of the pasta water to help make the sauce and toss all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon or tongs until they're all well combined.
- Serve with extra parmesan as a garnish.
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