Sunday Dinner: ReDo

After our Sunday Dinner hiatus last weekend, I planned a nice grilled fish dinner this past Sunday to make up for it. I made my own lemon-butter sauce for the fish and a fresh chopped salad. Not only did I steam the broccoli, I then sauteed it with a little crushed red pepper for extra flavor. Everything was going really well -- I put the fish in a homemade aluminum foil pack and threw it on the grill to steam in a pool of lemon-buttery goodness. The package on the fish said to grill it for 3-5 minutes and then poof -- grilled fish! The package lied.

I left the fish on for the whole 5 minutes and then decided I would just hope for the best. I took it off the grill and did my best to peek in to see if it was done, but since it had been steaming in the air-tight packet it was really hot, making it impossible to get a close look. Let's just say "hoping for the best" turned out to be a catastrophe. Parts of the fish looked nice and flaky, while others still looked a little less than pleasant. Meanwhile, the lovely fillets that came in the package turned into bite size pieces as I attempted to move everything from the foil packet to a tray.

Drew and Jesse were good sports and ate whatever fish they could, but at the end of the meal we were all still really hungry. Our saving grace was the chunk of Gouda I had in the fridge. We finished our meal with cheese and crackers while watching Dexter -- oh and a few cupcakes.

So, since I clearly don't have a good recipe to present from Sunday night, I whipped up a nice meal Monday night to post on here. I've made a few recipes similar to this one, but this was sort of self-created as I went. Without further ado I present my Sunday dinner redo. Enjoy!

Pesto Tortellini with Tomato and Spinach

Serves: 2-4 (4 if you serve it with salad and bread)
Cooking Time: 20 minutes

2 cups pesto tortellini*
3 Tbsp. olive oil
pinch crushed red pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
15 grape tomatoes, quartered
9 oz. baby spinach
1/2 cup pasta water
freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

*I used the dry pesto tortellini from Trader Joes, but most grocery stores have something similar.

1. Boil a pot of water and cook the tortellini according to the directions on the package.

2. While the water is boiling, slice the garlic and dice the tomatoes.

3. With about 8 minutes left on the pasta, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, crushed red pepper and salt to the pan. Saute until the garlic is golden brown, about 3 minutes.

4. Add the tomatoes to the pan and saute another 3-4 minutes.

5. Add the spinach to the tomato mixture and stir occasionally until wilted, about 1 minute. Meanwhile, drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid.

Before wilting:

After wilting:

6. Add the tomato mixture to the tortellini and combine. Add the reserved cooking liquid to the pot as needed. (I only used 1/2 cup to get the desired consistency)

5. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

and now a close-up ....

If only Drew would have been here to enjoy the better of the two Sunday dinners! :)