brothy tortellini and sausage soup

Allow me to introduce you to someone special. A slightly chiller, lighter, lower-key sibling of my creamy tomato tortellini soup, this brothy version is 100% its own person. I love tortellini, and find it criminally underrated in soup, but the vast majority of soup recipes that use tortellini are a) exactly like my other one and b) all have heavy cream in them. Sometimes you just aren’t down with the thickness.

That led me to create this one, a callback to the pure, clear luxury of tortellini in brodo from Emilia-Romanga, only with way more stuff in it. Trattoria vibes only, no Olive Garden.

The good news is that both versions are equally easy, have nearly identical instructions. They can be easily made vegetarian; just skip the sausage or sub it for beans, and change the chicken broth to vegetable. And as both bring something unique to the table, if you wanted to do something wild like make two tortellini soups in a week, you might not even notice the redundancy unless someone pointed it out.

The bad news is that this soup smells so good straight off the stove that you’re almost guaranteed to fry the roof of your mouth with a lava-filled tort within the first two bites. Be careful out there.

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RECIPE

Loosely inspired by classic tortellini en brodo, this cozy soup is fortified with leafy greens and sausage and uses storebought tortellini for easy weeknight achievability.

Effortful time: 5 minutes

Total time: 1 hour

Makes 6 generous bowls

YOU NEED

  • 1 tbsp. olive oil

  • 1 lb. mild Italian pork or chicken sausage; bulk is fine (you remove the casings anyway)

  • 4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

  • 1 small shallot, finely diced

  • About 1 bunch (6-8oz) kale, de-stemmed and chopped

  • 1 tsp. dried basil

  • 1/2 tsp. dried oregano

  • 2 tsp. dried parsley

  • 10 cups chicken broth; I used Better than Bouillon

  • 18 oz. small ricotta tortellini; I used Nuovo brand

  • Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

  • Parm for serving

  • Chili flakes for serving, if you like

MAKE IT

  1. Brown the sausage. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Slice open the sausage casings and dump the contents into the pot. Brown, breaking up into small pieces with a spoon, for 5-6 minutes or until well-crumbled and no longer pink.

  2. Sauté the aromatics. Scoot all the sausage over so oil pools onto the other side of the Dutch oven. Add the shallot and garlic and fry until fragrant, then stir quickly to combine with the sausage.

  3. Build your soup. Deglaze with a small amount of the broth and scrape up the pan bits. Add all of the chicken broth. Bring this to a simmer. Simmer this at a gentle bubble for 40 minutes, until the broth has reduced by about an inch.

  4. Wilt the greens. After 40 minutes, add the kale, stir, and cook for 10 minutes longer until soft and tender.

  5. Finish the soup. Toss in the tortellini and cook according to the package directions, usually 2-3 minutes longer.

  6. Serve it up. Ladle into bowls and top with grated parm, extra cracked pepper, and chili flakes.

soups & stewsA @ italian enoughoriginals, cozy, roman-romagna1 Comment