Tortellini with Spinach

My weekend reading lead me to this recipe: Tortellini with Garlicky Kale.  Both the hubster and I agreed that it sounded good; I mean, who doesn't like garlic?!  So my mission yesterday was to buy kale.  I failed in my mission.  I could've gone to Publix to buy it, but instead I chose to go to the farm stand.  I figure if kale isn't in season, than I shouldn't force it and instead, eat seasonally.  (At least that's what I told myself... it could've been that the farm stand doesn't have enough kale lovers for them to buy it from the farmers....)  So instead, I bought spinach.  Turned out perfectly!  I think the kale would've brought a little peppery bite that the spinach was lacking, but all in all, I was happy with the dish.

Tortellini with Spinach

Bread crumb topping:
2 cups of fresh bread crumbs (2 slices of bread)
2 garlic cloves minced
1 tbls evoo
1/4 cup of your favorite fresh herbs (I used basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary and parsley from our garden)

Grind the bread until bread crumbs form.  Heat the evoo in a medium saute pan and add the garlic.  Cook the garlic until slightly brown (don't burn!), about 1 minute.  Add the fresh herbs and bread crumbs and cook until bread crumbs are browned.  Remove from pan.

Tortellini
1 package of fresh tortellini
4 garlic cloves minced
10 oz. spinach chiffonade
2 tbls evoo
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

In the same pan that the bread crumbs were in, heat the evoo and add the garlic and red pepper flakes.  Cook for two minutes and then start adding the spinach.  Add it in batches until the first wilts, then add more.  Once the spinach is all wilted, add salt and pepper and the balsamic vinegar.

While the spinach is cooking, set a pot of water to boil and add the fresh tortellini.  Cook for about 2 minutes or until tortellini starts floating.  Since it's fresh, it won't take long.  Drain and add the pasta to the spinach and toss.

*Note:  We noticed that the garlic was really strong, so I might just use 2 cloves of garlic in the spinach mixture and not 4.