Slow Cooker Cheesy Tortellini
There’s nothing better than coming home to the cheesiest tortellini ever, and yes, it’s easily made right in the crockpot!
Remember that pre-emptive holiday health kick I was talking about with those baked green bean fries? Well, today, we are shifting gears to the ultimate comfort food. It’s all about balance, right?
Now the beauty of this recipe is that it comes together so easily right in your slow cooker. All you have to do is crumble up some ground beef and throw everything into the crockpot. Easy enough, right? Then, 15 minutes before serving, you’ll throw in your fresh tortellini and that cheesy goodness. That’s it!
Comfort food has never been so good (or easy!).
Slow Cooker Cheesy Tortellini
There’s nothing better than coming home to the cheesiest tortellini ever, and yes, it’s easily made right in the crockpot!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 10-ounce can diced tomatoes and green chiles, undrained
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 9-ounce package refrigerated three cheese tortellini
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add ground beef, onion and garlic. Cook until beef has browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Place ground beef mixture, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes and green chiles, oregano, basil and red pepper flakes into a slow cooker; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir until well combined.
- Cover and cook on low heat for 7-8 hours or high heat for 3-4 hours.
- Uncover and stir in tortellini; top with cheeses. Cover and cook on low heat for an additional 15-30 minutes, or until tender.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
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This is good, but I see no reason to cook in a slow cooker. I cook on stove and just simmer a while. I also drained the tomatoes and the rotel, it was too runny.
Love this! The sauce is the real winner here. You can use it with a crusty piece of bread and sop. You could add shrimp or kielbasa to it. You could definite make a large batch and freeze for later. Cook this now!
Hello
Please let me know, do I drain the crushed can of tomatoes? You say undrained for the diced tomato/chili can.
Thank you
Mary
No- do not drain any of them
I have made this many times and love it. Been asked to bring to a party and want to ask if it is possible to double the recipe ???
For those of you who find it bland my husband taught me a trick that works great to enhance the flavour and super simple. I have not tried it in the crockpot yet but when I am frying my meat whether chicken/Turkey or Beef I add a cube of bouillon to the pan and mix it in while the meat cooks. I don’t add extra water to dissolve it the juices from the meat help with that and the food always tastes much better with the addition of a bouillon cube.
This soup is excellent. And freezes really well! The tortellini is a little soggy, but the base more that makes up for it. High recommend this recipe! Thank you!
Can I put all of this uncooked in the freezer (except tortellini) , then pull it out and stick it in the slow cooker (frozen) on low for 10hours?
What a great idea! But unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot answer with certainty. But if you get a chance to try it, please let me know how it turns out! 🙂
I have done this multiple times. The last 10 mins you took the tortellini and youre good.
We go camping with a group and the arrangement is everyone has a day to provide dinner. We camp where the sites have power so slow cooker dishes are the favorite. This dish is so easy, get most ready before the trip or after breakfast; put it in the slow cooker, go on the days sight seeing trips come back to camp, add the last ingredients get the campfire started and everyone gathers for a filling and satisfying dinner. There’s nothing like pure comfort food after a day in the outdoors.
Easy and delicious! My husband and I loved it, and I’ll be making this again.
This was so delicious, one of my family’s new favorites!
Got the ingredients today and will be cooking this while I’m at work tomorrow! Can’t wait to try it for dinner! Looks so yummy!
Can this be frozen ahead of time? And maybe add the tortellini and cheese after it’s reheated?
Freezing sounds like an amazing idea but unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself. Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
You can also add Italian style meat balls with some mozerrella cheese and fresh grated Parmesan it’s delicious as well I just use turkey for the ground meat part. And if you have time to make homemade meat balls amazing sometimes I do sometimes I don’t but the frozen Italian ones are great and taste great . For when you want to have and amazing supper for the family loves ♥️! But doesn’t take forever to do. This would be the one! It’s amazing I just tweaked my own recipe with hers and made it simple for my lifestyle that’s all. I love playing in the kitchen anyway you can get fresh tortellini or frozen and boil it for like 30 minutes let it cool fry hamburger or turkey use all of her ingredients or tweak it the way you like it or your family likes it . Get canned chili green chili especially if using turkey tomato I didn’t use that are used spaghetti sauce and tweaked it with my own spices and extra tomato sauce let it get really hot then add the fried meet with spices let it simmer then all you have to do is worry about adding the tortellini and meatballs with mozzarella and Parmesan which will take about 30 minutes so all of it together takes about Two hours max if that. I’ll crockpot except for turkey beef or sausage that you have to fry And I recommend going ahead and cooking up cheese tortellini For at least a minute or two so that way it’s already almost done and less you have that extra 30 minutes or so to wait it takes longer in a crockpot/slow cooker if it’s refrigerated not salon definiteley Cook it if it’s frozen. Thanks for the wonderful recipe
Thank you so much for your feedback!!
Making this tonight. Hello from Houston TX. Looks amazing and I know it will taste amazing. Slow cooker recipes are the best
Can I freeze this recipe after cooking?
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself. Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
Hi, I was wondering if you can add the ground beef at the beginning of the recipe. I live in a dorm and they don’t have stove tops in here, so I can’t really brown it.
Yes, absolutely. The consistency will vary, and I personally prefer to ground the beef prior to adding to the slow cooker, but it’ll still work! 🙂
Is the correct pasta bag size 9oz or 19oz?
9 ounces.
I wondered the same thing. All I could find was 19 oz bags of tortellini. So I put in 9 oz and looked kind of light on the pasta so I put in the rest of the bag. It was just right.
It is a great dish. We will be making it again.
Great recipe. My wife cannot even complain! The kids love the tortellini so I use the 20oz bag. That is about right for us.
I made this for dinner tonight and it was a hit for the whole family! My super picky 9 year old especially loved it. So glad I added the red pepper flakes even though they were optional. The little bit of heat they added was the perfect addition.
If doubling the tortellini, is it necessary to double anything else? Thanks!
Yes, I would double the recipe in its entirety. Hope that helps!
Honestly I found it bland. I literally put in a tablespoon each of the oregano and basil, double the garlic, and added way more pepper and salt than it called for, and it was still bland. I used the correct measurements for everything else other than a slightly bigger can of diced tomatoes (sans chiles). I added some hot sauce and taco seasoning to help liven it up. I found the spice proportions not accurate for the amount of beef/tomatoes. I was super disappointed. I ate it because it didn’t taste BAD, just bland. Easy, yes. Delicious, meh.
Made this yesterday and was delicious! Had unexpected company and all raved about it! You have consistently great recipes.