Katie Lee Biegel's Creamy Lemon Tortellini Is Summer Pasta Perfection

The fact that it’s hot and humid outside doesn’t mean we have to give up our favorite food group: Pasta. To transform our favorite comfort food into something suitable for summer, we just have to infuse it with bright and sunny flavors so it feels more fresh and less frumpy. And that’s exactly what Katie Lee Biegel did when she created this dreamy and creamy lemon tortellini recipe. I mean, can you think of a flavor that screams summer more than lemon? We certainly can’t.

“The quickest, easiest, tastiest dinner you will make all week,” Biegel wrote in her Instagram caption. She also added that it’s kid-friendly and her own daughter, four-year-old Iris, officially approves of the recipe herself. We also love that this recipe comes together quickly because while it does require using the stove (a summer cooking no-no), it’s for a short amount of time so you won’t get your kitchen too hot and steamy.

To whip up this tasty and kid-approved meal, you just need your tortellini, some butter, some lemons, heavy cream or half and half, and some fresh parmesan to garnish. Oh, and a little bit of spinach so we can call it healthy and make ourselves feel better about eating so much pasta.

After you have your ingredients ready and prepped, you start by cooking the fresh tortellini. Biegel notes that you should salt the pasta water “aggressively” to avoid having to add extra salt to the dish at the end. After your tortellini is cooked, it’s just a matter of transferring the pasta to a skillet and combining the rest of the ingredients to create your sauce. As Ina Garten would say, “How easy is that?”

If you want to add a little protein to the dish, I bet it would taste great with some leftover grilled chicken or shrimp. You can check out the full recipe over on Biegel’s Instagram.

In search of more summer recipes? Giada De Laurentiis has plenty: