Tortellini with Chicken & Buffalo Mozzarella Meatballs

Thanks to a globe trotting sister, I managed to get my hands on authentic Italian Buffalo Mozzarella and some fantastic cheese tortellini (in addition to a lot of pastas, cheeses and herb mixes of course!). Creativity was calling out for a way to use a few of these ingredients into a recipe and this dish of Buffalo Cheese studded Chicken Meatballs with Tortellini was the best I could come up with.

I was really quite pleased with the final product. The meatballs were very light and flavorful. Melted mozzarella cheese oozed through tiny pockets and made the meatballs very tender. Fresh basil and finely chopped spinach along with generous amounts of Italian herb mixture added a lot of flavor. Cooked gentle heat in a rose sauce, this was sure to please one and all.

The big qu was however what pasta to pair these meatballs with. I love all pasta shapes and am quite particular on the choice of pasta shape in any dish. I decided to pair these cheesy meatballs with a cheesy spinach tortellini. The shape of the tortellini just paired beautifully with the meatballs, the tiny pockets in the tortellini nestled the sauce and parmesan cheese and made them an absolute delight to bite into.

One more thing that goes in the favor of this dish is the fact that it is so easy to prepare. The shaping of the meatballs is the only effort intensive activity here. Use a readymade pasta sauce of your choice and you will save a lot of time and effort. Since the meatballs cook directly in the sauce and don't need to be fried, they are easy to prepare and take very little time to cook also, making this recipe an easy one for a weeknight dinner. Since tortellini are used instead of normal pasta, it makes the dish more wholesome too. Paired with a nice salad and served with a glass of fruity crisp white wine, this is the perfect way to end a long day. 

Ingredients
Meatballs:
250 gms chicken mince
1 egg
1/2 cup diced fresh mozzarella cheese
3-4 fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
10 fresh spinach leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon Italian spice mix
Salt, pepper, red chilli flakes to taste

Sauce:
2 cups Tomato pasta sauce
1/3 cup heavy cream
salt, pepper to taste
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
4-5 fresh basil leaves to garnish

Pasta:
1 pack cheese & spinach tortellini

Method
1. Bring a pot of salted water to a roaring boil. Mix all the ingredien
ts for the meatballs and set aside.

2. Heat up the pasta sauce in a big pan which has a lid - add 1 cup water and heavy cream and gently cook over medium low heat for 3-5 minutes. Add the salt, pepper and half of the basil, torn gently with the hand and mix well.
3. Turn off the heat and gently and shape the chicken mixture into small meatballs, roughly the same size as the tortellini. Add the meatballs one at a time to the sauce. Once all the meatballs are in the pan, cover it with the lid and place on low heat for 7-10 minutes so that the meatballs can cook over gentle heat.

4. Add pasta to the boiling water and cook till al-dente. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water and drain the cooked pasta in a colander/strainer and set aside.
5. Once cooked, remove the meatballs only to a bowl on the side. Return the sauce to the pan, add a bit of the reserved pasta water to give the sauce the right consistency. Check for seasoning and add more if needed.

6. Add the cooked pasta to the sauce along with 1/2 of the grated parmesan cheese. Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring well to coat the pasta completely with the sauce. Add the meatballs and cook for another minute, mixing the meatballs into the pasta.
7. Remove the pasta to a serving platter/serving dish, sprinkle with the remaining basil leaves, gently torn with your hands and the remaining parmesan cheese.