For those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, I hope you had a wonderful day with family and friends. Now that the festivities are over, you’re lying on the couch, aren’t you? Sweatpants on, hair unbrushed and surrounded by magazines you’ve been hoping to read for months. You did enough cooking yesterday to last you a year and now you don’t want to make anything that requires hours of effort or pounds of butter. So, let’s put those turkey leftovers to good use. Last year, I made a Turkey, Brie, Pear & Cherry Chipotle Panini that was out of this world. In fact, there are plans for a repeat this weekend. This year, it’s baked tortellini, mixed with turkey, butternut squash (you could also used leftover sweet potatoes) and Swiss chard. It’s healthy, it feeds a crowd and, best of all, it’s easy.
The recipe:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place butternut squash pieces into a steamer, cover and cook until butternut squash is very tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and mash with the back of a fork. Set aside.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add tortellini and cook about 2 minutes less than directed by package instructions. Drain tortellini and transfer to a large bowl.
Stir in 1 cup tomato sauce, mashed butternut squash, turkey and chard.
Spread 3/4 cup tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9- by 13-inch baking dish. Transfer half of the tortellini mixture to the baking dish and spread evenly. Top with 3/4 cup tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese.
Transfer the remaining tortellini mixture to the baking dish, spreading evenly. Spread remaining 3/4 cup tomato sauce over top.
For the topping: In a medium bowl, mix together Parmesan cheese, sage and pecans.
Evenly sprinkle the topping over the casserole. Bake until the cheese is melted and the casserole is heated through, about 30 minutes. Serve.
Other recipes with leftover turkey:
Cookin’ Canuck’s Turkey, Brie, Pear & Cherry Chipotle Panini
Family Fresh Cooking’s Turkey, Sweet Potato, Goat Cheese & Fig Pizza
Panini Happy’s Thanksgiving Turkey Reuben
Tidy Mom’s Turkey Caesar Sandwiches
From the kitchen of Cookin Canuck. www.cookincanuck.com
Ingredients
- 2 cups butternut squash cubes (about 1/2 inch)
- 24 oz. cheese tortellini
- 3 cups tomato sauce, divided
- 2 cups chopped turkey (white & dark meat)
- 2 1/2 cups Swiss chard (strips cut crosswise)
- 1/2 cup coarsely grated Parmesan cheese
- Topping:
- 3/4 cup coarsely grated Parmesan cheese
- 3 tbsp chopped fresh sage
- 3/4 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Place butternut squash pieces into a steamer, cover and cook until butternut squash is very tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and mash with the back of a fork. Set aside
- Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add tortellini and cook about 2 minutes less than directed by package instructions. Drain tortellini and transfer to a large bowl.
- Stir in 1 cup tomato sauce, mashed butternut squash, turkey and chard.
- Spread 3/4 cup tomato sauce on the bottom of a 9- by 13-inch baking dish.
- Transfer half of the tortellini mixture to the baking dish and spread evenly.
- Top with 3/4 cup tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese.
- Transfer the remaining tortellini mixture to the baking dish, spreading evenly. Spread remaining 3/4 cup tomato sauce over top.
- For the topping: In a medium bowl, mix together Parmesan cheese, sage and pecans.
- Evenly sprinkle the topping over the casserole.
- Bake until the cheese is melted and the casserole is heated through, about 30 minutes. Serve.

























{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
Great idea to use up turkey making it completely different!
Lovely recipe, colors, and photo! Annnnnd, I happen to have all of the ingredients just waiting to be used!
Great idea for leftover turkey! Definetely going to try it. My family gets sick of leftover turkey sandwiches quickly.
I always have a bag of fresh tortellini in the fridge. It has saved my life more than once! I love making cold salads in the summer and bulking up mac and cheese variations in the winter. This recipe is definitely going into my rotation.
That would be perfect except that I’ve already eaten all the leftovers!! Hope you had a lovely holiday!
Being a Canadian, I had already celebrated my Thanksgiving weeks earlier as well. This looks great and an excellent use of leftover turkey. I put up a recipe for leftover turkey on my site today as well. Canucks think alike I guess!
Oh man this looks good! Wish I had caught up on my RSS box before food shopping – we are planning a casserole with the last of our turkey. But man does this look good. We love the flavor and texture of butternut squash.
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I used your turkey herb butter to season my brined bird – it came out fantastic.
I’m gonna have to try this really soon!
Love how seasonal and beautiful these are! Hope you had a lovely Thankgiving!
This looks amazing! Wow!
Perfect way to use up those leftovers!
Looks so filling and delicious.
This looks amazing Dara! I have to say, one of my favorite aspects of Thanksgiving is enjoying the leftovers after the fact.
This is the tastiest way to use leftovers that I have seen. I wish I had some leftovers, turkey sandwiches are the best part!
I guess that is a very small price to pay for having so many family members together for a great day. Hope your holiday was just as nice!
That looks so, so good!!!
I loooove chard! What a fabulous recipe – taking advantage of yummy late fall produce. Plus, tortellini are delicious.
Yep, turkey and swiss sounds like a GREAT idea. Such PRETTY leftovers.
Love this idea for a baked casserole. Butternut squash and swiss chard are two of my favorite things!
Like this unique way of using up leftover turkey – wish we still had some so I could give this a try…will have to keep it for next year.
Mmmmm…I love when the turkey leftover dishes are almost as fabulous as the turkey dinner! This looks amazing!
sounds great, love leftover dishes
What a great combination of flavors…beautiful dish!
These are literally all my favorite ingredients in one beautiful baked dish! Definitely making this!
Love all the squash you have been using
Love this recipe! Will be linking back to this in my upcoming post
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