Meatless Monday with Cheese Tortellini in Mushroom Sauce

Happy Meatless Monday! Do you have less than thirty minutes to get dinner on the table at the end of a hectic Monday? Does the task of making that meal meatless seem daunting? If so, how does twenty minutes and only a handfull of ingredients sound? Too good to be true, right? Well, the chefs at Everyday Food have the prefect recipe for such a dilemma: Tortellini with Mushroom Sauce. As always pasta dishes are a perennial favorite, not to mention that it makes a delicious, quick, easy and filling meal.

Ingredients
• 1 1/4 cups (1/3 of a 16-ounce bag) frozen cheese tortellini
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 8 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps halved and thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1-cup water
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1-tablespoon cold butter
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions
In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook tortellini according to package instructions; drain.  Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat oil over medium-low heat. Add mushrooms and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms are tender, about 7 minutes.

Add 1-cup water; season with salt and pepper. Cook until liquid is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; add tortellini, Parmesan, butter, and parsley. Toss to coat and serve with your favourite hot (spinach or rapini) or cold (leafy lettuce salad) green vegetable.

Remember that this meal will serve four so you can adjust it accordingly. With the exception of the mushrooms, and perhaps the parsley this is a meal that comes straight from the pantry. It is always handy to have a bag of frozen cheese tortellini in the freezer because it makes for a fast meal, whether you make this dish or simply add them to a vegetable broth and have it as a fast soup.  To keep fresh parsley on hand (if you are not already growing your own this summer) place it in the fridge in a cup with water. Change the water every other day and the parsley will last for a week or two (if you don’t use it up by then).  As, always try to buy ingredients that are organic and local to you to make your Meatless Monday meals (or any meal) to have the lightest carbon foot print possible. Enjoy!