Cooking is an art

At least that’s what they say.

I don’t usually cook… large or small meals. It's not really my thing. But there are a few meals and desserts that I love to cook and think turn out really well. At least that’s the feedback I get from my family and friends. :p

The dinner I’m making tonight is Tortellini and Three Pepper topping. Now, I can’t claim credit for this particular meal. I found it on allrecipies.com a few years ago, but I love cooking it and I absolutely love eating it! I’ll add the full recipe as I made it tonight at the bottom. :)

The beginning

The recipe calls for one whole green pepper and a ½ each of a yellow and red. Now, I love cooked peppers too, so I almost always use three full peppers. Most of the time, I lean toward the yellow and gold peppers. The red and green add a bit of color, but I prefer the flavor of the other two. I chop the peppers into 2” or so strips. Next is a small onion. I’ll use a red or white, doesn’t really matter to me in this case. The onion gets diced or cut up really small or however I manage to cut it. All that’s left is the tortellini and chicken broth.

Simple! And that’s not the end of the simplicity of this meal! ^_^

Simmer, simmer, and more simmer!
So, you’ve chopped up your peppers and onion. Next step, add a small bit of olive oil to a skillet (a wok style skillet is great for this), let it heat up then add your peppers and onion. Let the veggies simmer a bit, get warm and soft. After a few minutes, add half a can of chicken broth. I use the lower sodium because this meal is already so full of flavor that I don’t see the point of adding all that extra salt.

Your kitchen should start smelling fabulous at this point. This is really another easy part because all you do now is let it boil down the chicken broth, stirring occasionally, of course. Once it’s almost a sauce, add the other half a can.

Now to add a kick
I like adding just a few shakes of some red pepper flakes and, if I didn’t already use garlic olive oil, I’ll add a bit of minced garlic. I’m sure there are many other spices that would add to this yummy meal, I just haven’t figured out what yet. ;)

And again, sit back and relax as you boil down the rest of the broth. Oh – this would be a good time to have the tortellini boiling too because by the time the tortellini’s all boiled up and ready, the topping will be too.

Ta-da!

 Now, the recipe’s technically called “Three Pepper Topping,” but I love to mix my pepper mixture with the tortellini, so grab a big bowl, pour in the pasta, add the peppers and stir it up. Voila! Ready to go! I’d have to describe the flavor of this meal as a kind of buttery pasta. The individual flavors all blend into a creamy sort of melody that I can’t find just the right word to describe it. It’s just plain good and you should try it.

And now my dinner’s almost cold since I couldn’t wait to share this with you, so I’ll leave you with one more picture and go enjoy my yummy-liscious meal. :)

Tortellini and Three Pepper Topping (as shown above)3 Bell Peppers (1 green, 1 gold, 1 yellow)
1 Small Red Onion
1-3 tbsp Olive Oil
1 Can 1/3 less Sodium Chicken Broth
1 package tortellini (approx. 9 oz)
Red Pepper Flakes
Minced Garlic

Chop vegetables then sauté in the olive oil. Once starting to soften, add ½ can of chicken broth. Boil down.

Start water boiling for tortellini.

Add other ½ can chicken broth, a couple shakes of red pepper flakes and minced garlic. Boil down again into a sauce.

Add tortellini to boiling water.

Once both are done, mix and serve!