Tortellini and Eggplant: Italian Made Easy

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Tossed green salad with fresh vegetables, garlic croutons and Italian black olives

Italian-Style Tortellini

With Eggplant

Crusty Italian bread

Neapolitan ice cream with wafer cookies

When you’re on a tight schedule, nothing is as easy as a one-skillet meal. And this Italian-Style Tortellini With Eggplant is not only easy to make, it is also easy to clean up.

Ready-made tortellini and marinara sauce cut the preparation time to a minimum. To make the dish really your own and give it a homemade flavor, add eggplant, goat cheese and fresh basil. If you like, serve freshly grated Parmesan cheese on the side.

First, bring a pot of water to boiling and cook the tortellini according to the directions on the package. While you’re waiting for the water to boil, mince the garlic, slice the eggplant and saute them in a little oil. Add the marinara sauce to the cooked eggplant along with the cooked tortellini and heat. Top with goat cheese and basil and the one-skillet dinner is ready.

For a salad, slice up any appropriate vegetable from the refrigerator and toss with assorted salad greens. If you have no vegetables on hand, buy already cut-up vegetables at the salad bar of a local market.

For dessert, Neapolitan ice cream is a great way to end the meal, accompanied by thin wafer cookies.

ITALIAN-STYLE TORTELLINI WITH EGGPLANT

Staples

2 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons oil

Shopping

2 (15-ounce) cartons marinara sauce

1 (9-ounce) package chicken and prosciutto tortellini

1 (5 1/2-ounce) package goat cheese

2 Japanese eggplants

1 bunch fresh basil

Optional side-dish shopping

Salad greens

Cut-up vegetables

Garlic croutons

Italian bread

Italian black olives

Neapolitan ice cream

Wafer cookies

1. Cook 1 (9-ounce) package tortellini according to package directions. Drain well. Keep warm.

2. Mince 2 cloves garlic. Thinly slice 2 Japanese eggplants.

3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in large skillet until hot. Add eggplant slices in single layer. Brown on both sides. Remove slices and keep warm while browning remaining batches. Add additional oil if needed.

4. Add garlic while browning last batch of eggplant. Return all eggplant to skillet. Stir in 2 (15-ounce) cartons marinara sauce. Heat to simmering.

5. Stir in cooked tortellini. Cover and heat until heated through.

6. Cut 1 (5 1/2-ounce) package goat cheese into cubes. Add to skillet pushing down into sauce. Cover and heat several minutes, just until cheese begins to soften.

7. Cut into strips 2 tablespoons basil leaves. Sprinkle over top and serve.

Makes 3 to 4 servings.