Beef Tortellini with Tomato & Chives - A Dressed-Up Assemblage

Making a pasta dish now-a-days isn't really cooking, unless you make your own sauces, or your own pasta, or your own meat or vegetable features, or any combination therein. Throwing pasta in water and heating up a bottled sauce to combine with pre-grated cheese is more a simple undertsanding in "assemblage".
It is a short cut, a piece of cake, I get it. I do it myself, sometimes. As a recent graduate, I am familiar with the need, absolutely.

But! There is something to be said for the making of - as above listed - components, if not all of it.
Besides the relaxing, break-and-breath-from-your-business-day mood of working with your food stuffs from scratch, and the fulfillment that comes from having a relationship with the food you ingest, there are major flavor benefits from, say, whipping up a red sauce on your own.

Anyways, this is certainly one of those "assemblage" pasta dinners, so be warned.

Nevertheless, there are ways in which one can freshen the assemblage up, enliven the taste buds, and contribute a creative flare to the classic pre-made sauce and pasta.
I try for a good quality pasta.
I get a good sauce that can serve as a base to additional themes of flavor.
I choose a vegetable or protein theme to make from scratch.
And fresh herbs always make packaged food go far.

A recent approach:
Beef Tortellini with Grape Tomatoes & Chives

Beef Tortellini with Grape Tomatoes & Chives, Caya 2013.

 This is a pasta dish that can be enjoyed at room temperature on a Spring or early Summer, as well!