Creamy Lemon Tortellini

Method

How it goes together

1. 01

   Step 1

   Cook the garlic – Heat the butter in a large, heavy-based, deep pan over medium–high heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds.

   Thirty seconds in hot butter is enough to take the raw bite off the garlic and flavour the fat the whole sauce is built on.

2. 02

   Step 2

   Add the zucchini – Add the zucchini and cook for 2–3 minutes until softened.

   Softening the zucchini first drives off some of its water, so it doesn't dilute the cream sauce later.

3. 03

   Step 3

   Add the remaining sauce ingredients – Stir through the lemon juice, followed by the chicken or vegetable stock, cream, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer.

   Adding the lemon juice first lets it cook down against the butter before the cream goes in, which keeps the acid from splitting the dairy. Salt at this point seasons the sauce itself rather than just the surface.

4. 04

   Step 4

   Add the tortellini – Add the fresh tortellini (no need to pre-cook). Stir so that the tortellini are evenly coated with the sauce, using the back of your spoon to gently submerge the tortellini as much as possible (it's okay if they aren't completely submerged). Reduce the heat to medium–low so that the sauce is very gently simmering (you should be able to see gentle bubbles in the sauce but it should not be rapidly bubbling). Cover and cook for 3–5 minutes or until the pasta is cooked through. Stir once halfway through.

   The tortellini cook in the sauce, so the starch they release thickens it and the pasta takes on lemon and garlic instead of plain water. Covering traps steam to cook the parts sitting above the liquid.

5. 05

   Step 5

   Add the spinach and cheese – Stir through the spinach and parmesan. Once the spinach has softened, turn the heat off.

   Off-heat residual warmth wilts the spinach and melts the parmesan into the sauce without the cheese seizing into strings.

6. 06

   Step 6

   Serve – Sprinkle with extra parmesan and serve immediately.

   This sauce keeps tightening as it cools and the pasta keeps drinking it up, so it is at its creamiest straight from the pan.