Slow Cooker Tortellini Pasta Recipe
This slow cooker tortellini recipe is an easy and delicious pasta bake made right in the crockpot! It's cheese tortellini pasta, your favorite marinara, spicy ground sausage, and loaded with cheese. It's an easy dump-and-go slow cooker meal the entire family loves.
Servings: 8 people
Calories: 292kcal
Ingredients
- 1 pound Italian sausage
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- 20 ounces cheese tortellini pasta fresh or frozen
- 24 ounces marinara sauce
- 1 cup water
- 1½ cup mozzarella cheese divided
- 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- In a skillet over medium high heat, add the Italian Sausage along with about 1 tablespoon of water. Season with the salt and pepper and cook until the sausage is no longer pink, then remove from the heat. Drain any liquid from the meat and pour it into the crock pot.
- Spray the inside of the slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray, then add the cooked sausage. Stir in the tortellini, marinara sauce, water, 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese, and the Parmesan cheese. Stir the ingredients together, then top with the remaining 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese.
- Cover and cook on high heat for 3-4 hours, or until the pasta is cooked and the cheese is melted.
- Let the pasta cool for about 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- *In addition to the 1 cup of water that you add at the beginning, you will likely need to add about 1/2 cup more water while it cooks because the pasta needs to soak up some liquid while cooking. Just check about halfway through the cooking time and add more water if it is looking dry.
- Either mild sausage or Spicy Italian Sausage will work great.
- It's easy to prepare the meat for this ahead of time. I put together a tutorial on how to make ahead Spaghetti meat here if you want to check it out. It makes spaghetti dinners and pasta bakes so easy to prepare.
- Some crockpots have hot spots and some cook faster than others. I have 2 slow cookers and one cooks food 20% faster than the other one. You can always turn it to warm if it bakes faster than you're anticipating.
- This recipe for Pull Apart Garlic Bread is a great side to serve with this pasta bake!
Nutrition
Calories: 292kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 62mg | Sodium: 1043mg | Potassium: 441mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 535IU | Vitamin C: 7mg | Calcium: 164mg | Iron: 2mg