Cheesy Tortellini Spinach, Bacon & Sausage Casserole

I got this recipe from 'Lil Luna and made some modifications to it based upon what I had on hand.  This was a super hit with everyone in my family, particularly the guys.  My husband on a scale of 0 to 10, gives this a 20.  It has some of his favorite foods - kielbasa sausage, pasta.

Here is my rendition to the recipe.

Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg 12 oz tortellini, dry (I used a cheese tortellini from Trader Joe's)
• 2/3rds lb bacon, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 bunch spinach, washed & chopped (stems included)
•  8 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lb kielbasa sausage, cubed
• 3 Tbspns flour (you can use arrowroot here or coconut flour)
• 3 cups 2% milk (since we rarely buy milk, we did organic)
• 2 handfuls of shredded mozzarella cheese (I know, what kind of measurement is this?)
• sea salt & ground pepper, to taste
• 1 handful of shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 bunch of green onions (tops cut off), thinly sliced

Directions:

• Cook tortellini per package directions.  Strain.  Pour into a 13 x 9 ceramic or glass casserole dish.
• Cook bacon in a skillet until done.  Pour out most of fat (I save the fat in glass jars to use in other recipes, which gives it a nice bacon flavor.)  Reserve some of the fat in this same skillet.  Put some of the fat in another skillet.
• In a separate skillet heated on medium high heat, with some of the bacon fat, cook onion until nearly translucent, a few minutes.  Add garlic and cook for another minute, stirring.
• Add spinach and cook for a few minutes longer until spinach is wilted.
• Top the onion, garlic spinach mixture over the tortellini.
• Cook kielbasa cubes in this skillet, browning.  Add to the 13 x 9 casserole dish.
• Preheat oven to 350° F.
• In the other skillet that has only the bacon grease, add the flour to it, stirring.  It should look clumpy.
• Add 1 cup of milk at a time, stirring until some of the flour clumps are less clumpy and eventually smooth.
• Add sparingly salt and as much ground pepper as you need.  The mozzarella and sausage already have salt in it so if you add too much salt, this dish will seem salty.
• Continually stir the sauce until it's smooth.  Add 2 handfuls of the mozzarella cheese and stir until smooth, which is about a minute or so.
• Top the sauce over the stuff in the casserole dish and mix ever so gently until everything is evenly dispersed.  You don't want to break the tortellini.
• Cover with the last handful of mozzarella cheese.
• Top with sliced green onions.  
• Cover with tin foil.
• Bake for 20 min. covered.  Bake another 20 minutes uncovered.
• Serve with warm garlic bread.  I had a loaf sliced and ready to put in the oven about 10-15 min. before the casserole was done.
• Enjoy.