A soup so comforting it feels like a warm hug on a cold day
The Pacific Northwest is known for having extremely wet and dreary winters. The chill goes deep into your bones due to all of the moisture in the air. Sometimes the only cure to a chilly day is a bowl of warm soup. This tortellini and sausage soup is exactly what you need on a cool winter day. It is hearty and delicious, full of flavors and textures, and it comes together so quickly which makes it an easy week night meal.
Let‘s chat about these ingredients for a second. This soup is loaded with good stuff! It has sausage, kale, tomatoes, tortellini (obvi), mushrooms, shallots, garlic, and so many good spices. The complexity of the flavor, and the contrasting textures between the sausage and tortellini is what does it for me. Each bite is absolutely perfect!
We start off with browning the sausage, and I have a little trick to share - I actually learned it from Ronny Lvovski (Primal Gourmet), and I’ve never looked back. The trick is to brown the meat as meatballs first, and then smash them down and break it up to have crispy browned meat. The crust that is initially developed on the meatball adds so much flavor and good textures, really elevating any dish. No need to make the meatballs pretty, or uniform in size, we are truly just doing this to develop a crust on the meat.
After the meat is nice and browned, I add in the shallots, garlic, mushrooms, and spices, and cook everything until fragrant. I utilize this time to bloom the spices. I want them to react to the heat before we add in any of the liquids. This will help the spices to release all of the flavor and oils that make a dish delicious.
Once you're past this step, it is smooth sailing and your dish is almost complete. We add the chicken broth, tomato sauce, and diced tomatoes, bring it to a boil and add the tortellini. We want to just cook the tortellini to make sure it doesn't overcook (because overcooked pasta is mushy and gross). In the last minute, toss in the kale and heavy cream - voila you have a yummy, comforting, soup that will satisfy the whole family. Honestly, you should double the recipe to make sure there are leftovers for the rest of the week.
Enjoy!
