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We Took a Reddit-Well-known Tortellini Soup and Made It Even Higher

Why It Works

  • A mix of Italian sausage, contemporary fennel, and fennel seeds offers the soup a refined sweetness and aromatic aroma. 
  • Cooking the tortellini individually from the soup prevents the pasta from overcooking and dissolving within the soup.
  • Topping the soup with pesto and Parmigiano-Reggiano offers every chunk a herbaceous, nutty taste and welcome richness.

There are two members of our staff who’re continuously lurking on Reddit: our editorial director Daniel and me. Once I’m not laughing on the silliness of boards devoted to eggs in strange places or slices of bread stapled to trees, I’m perusing the cooking subreddits, the place I get inspiration for recipes and, occasionally, anonymously reply culinary questions. Not too long ago, my feed’s been crammed with posts devoted to what Redditors are calling “the soup,” “updoot soup,” or “upvote soup,” a creamy slow-cooker soup with rooster, spinach, and tortellini. 

Apparently the soup has been making the rounds on Reddit since at the very least 2017, and whereas some customers love the meal sufficient to incorporate it of their common rotation, others describe it as an “aggressively mid” recipe that requires many tweaks with the intention to style good. (There’s even a thread during which folks share their favourite variations on the unique recipe.) Curious to see what the hype was all about, I made a decision to offer the original recipe, or what’s supposedly the unique recipe, a attempt. 

Critical Eat / Amanda Suarez


The recipe instructs cooks to microwave onions, flour, basil, garlic, and tomato paste with a drizzle of olive oil earlier than tossing it right into a gradual cooker with rooster broth, diced tomatoes, and boneless, skinless rooster thighs. The soup cooks for a whopping 4 to 6 hours on low warmth earlier than you end it with tortellini, spinach, Parmesan, and heavy cream. Whereas it was extremely straightforward to make, it simply wasn’t flavorful sufficient for my liking. However I felt it had plenty of potential. So, like my fellow Redditors, I made a decision to place my very own spin on the soup. Here is what I did to take this soup from, sure, “aggressively mid,” to truly scrumptious.

Easy methods to Make Really Good Creamy Tortellini Soup

Ditch the microwave and gradual cooker. I perceive the enchantment of a set-it-and-forget-it meal, however it is a fast, straightforward dinner that actually doesn’t require (or profit from) both equipment, and also you’re significantly better off taking the time to brown your aromatics.

Swap out the rooster for sausage. As an alternative of chucking in a number of boneless, skinless rooster thighs, I began the soup by sautéeing juicy Italian sausage, which has a candy, floral observe from fennel seeds, in a big pot. Then I additional constructed taste by utilizing the leftover fats from the sausage to cook dinner my fragrant soffritto (extra on that under) proper in the identical pan.

Critical Eats / Amanda Suarez


Sauté a soffritto. Italian soffritto has the identical constructing blocks as mirepoix—a combination of onion, carrots, and celery regularly used as a flavorful base for dishes in French delicacies—although it could additionally comprise fennel, parsley, and/or garlic. For a soup with layers of taste, my soffritto features a mixture of onion, garlic, celery, carrot, and fennel, plus fennel seeds and a pinch of crushed pink pepper flakes. As talked about above, I cooked this combination within the sausage fats, scraping up the fond to kind essentially the most flavorful base potential for the soup.

For a pleasant dose of umami, use tomato paste as a substitute of diced tomatoes. Although contemporary and canned tomatoes comprise loads of glutamic acid (a chemical that offers meals an umami observe), reaching for them of their concentrated kind—tomato paste—is a simple, minimal-effort technique to give the soup an intense savory taste with hints of tangy sweetness.

Thicken with flour. To assist thicken the soup and provides it additional physique, I coat the greens with flour, then cook dinner the combination for a number of minutes. Not solely does this assist take away the flour’s uncooked taste, but it surely additionally prevents disagreeable and unpleasant lumps from forming within the soup.

Skip the spinach and use a hardy inexperienced. Spinach is scrumptious, but it surely doesn’t have fairly sufficient heft to face up on this creamy, sturdy soup. So as a substitute of spinach, I like to recommend utilizing a hardy inexperienced like curly or lacinato kale, Swiss chard, or collard greens, which received’t get misplaced among the many tortellini and items of sausage.

Critical Eat / Amanda Suarez



Prepare dinner the pasta by itself.
As tempting as it’s to make this a really one pot meal by cooking the pasta within the soup, it’s value taking the time to cook dinner the tortellini individually. This lets you management the doneness of the pasta and prevents the tortellini from overcooking and dissolving into the soup, creating an unappetizing mushy mess.

Serve it with dollops of pesto and loads of Parmigiano-Reggiano. As an alternative of incorporating basil into the soup, which many variations name for, I high the soup with pesto for a contact of candy, herbaceous taste. A beneficiant bathe of nutty Parmigiano-Reggiano brings all of it collectively, and makes every chunk splendidly savory.

Critical Eat / Amanda Suarez


We Took a Reddit-Well-known Tortellini Soup and Made It Even Higher



Prepare dinner Mode
(Hold display awake)

  • 1 tablespoon (15ml) extra-virgin olive oil

  • 1 1/2 kilos gentle or spicy Italian sausage, faraway from casing

  • 1 medium onion (8 ounces; 227g), finely chopped

  • 3 medium cloves garlic (1/2 ounce; 15g), finely chopped

  • 3 medium celery ribs (about 5 3/4 ounces; 165g) with leaves, finely chopped

  • 1 giant carrot (about 2 3/4 ounces; 75g), finely chopped

  • 1 medium fennel bulb (8 ounces; 226g), finely chopped

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds

  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed pink pepper flakes (elective)

  • 1/4 cup tomato paste (3 1/2 ounces; 100g)

  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour (about 1 ounce; 32g)

  • 6 cups (1.4L) do-it-yourself rooster or vegetable inventory or store-bought low-sodium broth

  • 4 ounces lacinato or curly kale or different hardy greens, equivalent to collards or Swiss chard (about 113g; 2 cups)

  • 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream

  • 6 ounces (170g) contemporary or frozen cheese tortellini

  • Pesto, homemade or store-bought, for serving (elective)

  • Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for serving (elective)

  1. In a 5-quart soup pot or Dutch oven, warmth olive oil over medium warmth till shimmering. Add sausage and cook dinner, stirring to interrupt up the meat and scraping backside of pot, till nicely browned, 6 to eight minutes. Utilizing a slotted spoon, take away sausage from pot; put aside. If meat has rendered an extreme quantity of fats, use a metallic or different heat-safe spoon to ladle most of it out, leaving 2 to three tablespoons within the pot. (If, conversely, you have got lower than about 2 tablespoons of fats left, add additional olive oil.) Add onion, garlic, celery, carrot, fennel, fennel seeds, and crushed pink pepper flakes (if utilizing), and cook dinner, stirring and scraping backside of pot, till greens are softened and launch some moisture, about 8 minutes.

    Critical Eat / Amanda Suarez


  2. Add tomato paste, stirring to coat greens evenly, and cook dinner till paste is a darkish pink, about 3 minutes. Sprinkle flour over greens and cook dinner, stirring regularly, till evenly coated and flour begins to stay to backside, about 2 minutes.

    Critical Eat / Amanda Suarez


  3. Slowly pour in inventory or broth, stirring till flour is absolutely integrated. Deliver to a boil over medium-high warmth. Add kale and return sausage to soup; cut back warmth to a simmer till kale is tender and flavors meld, 8 to 10 minutes.

    Critical Eat / Amanda Suarez


  4. In the meantime: Deliver a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add tortellini and cook dinner, stirring, till simply shy of al dente, about 2 minutes lower than package deal directions. Utilizing a colander, drain tortellini; put aside.

  5. Take away soup from warmth. Add heavy cream progressively, stirring to mix, adopted by the tortellini. Season to style with salt and pepper as wanted.

    Critical Eat / Amanda Suarez


  6. Divide into bowls and high with pesto and Parmigiano-Reggiano, if utilizing. Serve instantly to forestall tortellini from overcooking.

    Critical Eat / Amanda Suarez


Particular Gear

5-quart soup pot or Dutch oven, medium saucepan, colander

Make-Forward and Storage

The soup will be made by way of step 3 and refrigerated in an hermetic container for as much as 5 days or frozen for as much as 1 month. Thaw in a single day within the fridge if frozen, then reheat over medium-high warmth till simmering earlier than continuing with step 4. 

Leftovers will be refrigerated in an hermetic container for as much as 4 days (use a slotted spoon to take away cooked tortellini and retailer in a separate hermetic container to forestall it from absorbing an excessive amount of liquid). Gently reheat soup in a pot over medium-low warmth till warmed by way of and return tortellini to soup. Simmer till tortellini is heat, about 3 minutes.

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