Cheese Tortellini coated in a creamy Parmesan sauce flavored with garlic, onion, a few red pepper flakes, and a pinch of nutmeg, plus lots of broccoli florets. This Broccoli Alfredo Tortellini is a vegetarian comfort meal that can be made in under 30 minutes.
When cooking for a family, it can be hard to come up with meal ideas that appeal to everyone.
Each family member has his or her likes and dislikes and if you have a family member with a food restriction, it’s twice as hard.
What I love about Broccoli Alfredo Tortellini?
This Broccoli Alfredo Tortellini is a meal that appeals to pretty much everyone and it is vegetarian on its own, but you can easily add grilled chicken to it. It’s an easy recipe that is packed with cheese flavor. Made with cheese tortellini, you get lots of cheese flavor from the tortellini, plus there’s a full cup of Parmesan cheese added to the sauce.
Broccoli Alfredo Tortellini comes together quickly. You can have it on the table in under 30 minutes. Serve it with a loaf of crusty bread and there won’t be a single tortellini left. Guarantee.
Is this dish spicy?
There’s only a slight amount of heat in this recipe. For more heat, double the amount of crushed red pepper flakes.
Recipe Tips:
Tortellini cooks very quickly. Be careful not to overcook it.
Frozen broccoli can be used instead of fresh. Microwave it according to package directions.
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Try These Other Broccoli Recipes:
- Cheesy Broccoli Cornbread
- Broccoli Cheese Balls
- Broccoli Cheese Dip
- Spicy Roasted Broccoli
- Bacon Blue Cheese Broccoli Salad
Broccoli Alfredo Tortellini
Ingredients
- 6 cups broccoli florets,, cut in fairly small pieces
- 1 (12-ounce) package refrigerated cheese tortellini
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 onion,, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic,, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- pinch of nutmeg
- 2 cups half-and-half
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese,, plus extra for serving
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Steam broccoli until tender and cook tortellini according to package directions, setting aside 1/4 cup of cooking liquid just before draining pasta. Alternately, you can add the broccoli to the pasta water for the last 2-3 minutes of cooking the tortellini instead of steaming it. Drain well.
- While tortellini is cooking, melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and nutmeg, and cook for 2 more minutes.
- Pour in the half-and-half and bring it to a simmer. Simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Add Parmesan cheese and turn heat to low. Once cheese is melted add tortellini and broccoli, plus cooking liquid. Stir to combine everything well and cook a few minutes to thicken the sauce.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with additional Parmesan.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Adapted from Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice
More Easy Pasta Recipes
Originally published June 5, 2015
Delicious! I used light cream instead of half n half.
This meal was delicious! 👍👍 from my husband and me. Now, with that said, I did tweak the recipe. I added a pound of chicken tenders cut into chunks and I used a 20 oz bag of frozen broccoli. I defrosted the broccoli before cooking. I did add it to the tortellini for the last 2 minutes of cooking. Next time I will increase the red pepper flakes. We will be making this again. It’s a perfect week night meal for our house!
It looks and smells delish!!! Trying to thicken the sauce up a little bit more. Served with some pillsbury biscuits:) thanks the the quick yummy recipe!!
Total tried this recipe and its delicious and quick!
This looks delicious, Christin! I love all that broccoli in there and that alfredo sauce looks so creamy…what a great quick and easy dinner!
Christin, I’m just going to move to your house and have a seat at the table, mmmm, k? I love every dish you make. And, this vegetarian tortellini needs to be in my life. I see this, and I think “Mmmm, yes. You need to be in my belly now.” And, I don’t make nearly enough vegetarian dishes!
My kids are so hard to please when it comes to dinner time right now! They’d eat mac and cheese every night if I’d let them. 🙂 Broccoli is one of the only vegetables that they will eat (a little of) and this cheesy tortellini looks delicious!
Quick and easy meal? This has my name written all over it! Love this!
Yum. I am in love with broccoli. And pasta. And Parmesan :). Totally making this!
Looks delicious 🙂 I think I would add some chicken 🙂