Italian Sausage Tortellini Bake

If you know anything about me, at all, it's that if I'm going to cook dinner or anything really, the recipe must be easy.  :-)

Alex gets a daily e-mail from AllRecipes.com, and forwards me the ones he thinks look appetizing so that we can add them to our rotation of meals.

He sent me this italian sausage tortellini bake recipe.  Easy enough.

Italian Sausage Tortellini Bake - allrecipes.com

Of course, I had to make my own adaptions to the recipe, so here's my version.

1 pound hot Italian sausage
1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 (24 oz) jar marinara sauce
1 (14 oz) can Italian-sytle diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (20 ounce) package frozen cheese-filled tortellini
2 cups shreeded mozzarella cheese

Heat a large pot over medium heat. Crumble sausage into the saucepan; add onion and green bell pepper. Cook and stir the sausage mixture until the sausage is completely browned, 7 to 10 minutes. Drain grease.

Pour marinara sauce and diced tomatoes over the sausage mixture; season with garlic powder and stir. Bring the mixture to a simmer, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook at a simmer until the diced tomatoes break down into the sauce, 30 to 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

*** Because I didn't buy frozen tortellini, I was able to skip the step of cooking them. I bought them in the deli section of my local Target.  ***

Gently fold the cooked tortellini into the simmering sauce; cook together another 5 minutes. Pour tortellini and sauce into a 13x9-inch baking dish; top with mozzarella cheese.

Bake in preheated oven until cheese is golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes.