tortellini with 5-minute sauce

At this point, this is just a fantasy meal. But hey, it's got to start somewhere, right? I'm on the heels of a very frustrating soup-making experience (more about that in a minute) and need something truly delicious to cheer me up.

I found a yummy-sounding 5-minute tomato sauce - simple, pure, and I have all the ingredients on hand. I mean, look at it! If you have any love at all for tomato sauce, it's a must-try. Perfect for topping a simple tortellini (once I make it - I have to do some recipe-hunting, first). I am not satisfied with what I've seen of whole wheat pastas - too thick, too crumbly. Here, I'm a traditionalist: al dente, beautiful smooth semolina-based pasta. And then there's the filling. I'll keep working on this. I'm thinking about: the vegan tofu ricotta I've seen, with basil; the small tin of mushroom Tartex I'd ordered from Food Fight along with other stuff, and haven't opened yet; other ideas (spinach with mushroom).

So, back to my previously mentioned soup dilemma. We had a (very) large bundle of collards that were getting long in the tooth, and thought - hey, soup! So I carmelized several onions, adding in lots of garlic for the last few minutes, and slow-roasted up a bunch of veggies in order to get that wonderful sweetness that only comes that way - carrot, rutabaga, 2 different sorts of squash. Chopped up half the huge batch of collards, and threw it all in my big dutch oven, where I'd just done a large batch of veggie broth, heavy on the leeks.. Added in bay leaves. Simmer simmer simmer simmer (about 2 hours); blend with stick blender. Add Bragg's, tahini (about 1/4 c), hot pepper flakes, hot pepper sauce, several tablespoons of brown sugar. It is bitter. The topnotes are delicious, but there is an overwhelming bitter taste and I know it's from the collards. Damn it. Hopefully I can rescue it - there's a lot of it! Pretty frustrating experience. I have learned from it, though - a) old collards can be bitter, and b) old collards, in particular, have a very assertive taste, best used in small amounts as part of something like a soup. I think it would've been a lot better if I'd added 1/3 as much as I did.