A Fast & Fancy Creamy Pasta That Will Make You Swoon

Keep a bag of frozen tortellini tucked away in your freezer and you can rest easy knowing that a quick meal is always at the ready. This series on fast tortellini dinners will show you how to transform frozen tortellini into dinner using pantry staples and a few surprising techniques. Pasta sauce is just the beginning!

Frozen tortellini deserves to be dressed up and made to feel a bit fancy sometimes. Here’s how: Toss it in creamy, dreamy mascarpone cheese, along with plenty of bright lemon juice, colorful peas, and, most importantly, crispy prosciutto crumbles. It’s the fastest way to turn frozen tortellini to a fancy-pants dish of macaroni and cheese.

Sometimes you want your bowl of pasta to feel a little luxurious. You can absolutely have that without it taking longer or costing more than a regular weeknight meal. So the next time you’re looking for an upgrade on your mac and cheese experience, think tortellini. Bathe it in a lemony mascarpone cheese sauce, swirl in some peas, and top with crispy proscuitto.

While you boil the frozen tortellini according to package instructions, make some crispy prosciutto. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the prosciutto in a single layer and cook until curling and lightly browned underneath, about 2 minutes. Flip and let cook until browned on the other side, about 2 minutes more, then transfer the prosciutto to paper towels to drain. Toss the drained, hot tortellini with a few big spoonfuls of mascarpone cheese, a generous squeeze of lemon juice, and some frozen peas. Serve the tortellini in shallow bowls, crumbling plenty of crispy prosciutto on top. This side is super delicious hot out the pan, but we’ve been known to bulk it up with a few more veggies and eat it cold for lunch.