Monday, October 20, 2014

Creamy Tortellini Soup



Soup weather is finally here and I don’t think I could be any happier! I’ve been avoiding making soup over the summer. It has been a very difficult task because soup is one of my favorite foods in the entire world. Our air conditioner is crazy old and wasn’t consistently working over the summer. We had a repair man come out twice to get it through the summer. We are planning on getting a new AC next year but we did everything we could to plow through the summer heat. We were lucky that the summer wasn’t too hot. I avoided hot foods where I could, reduced stove/oven time and grilled as much as possible. But now it is OCTOBER! The AC is off for the rest of the year. The leaves are glorious shades of fall wonderfulness. The weather is delightfully cool. Sweaters are being paired with jeans. Coffee is now served hot instead of iced. Soup is making an appearance on the menu at least once a week.

This soup recipe was a quick fix in the slow cooker. I made it on a Friday night when I was planning on having some friends over. Every other month I get together with a few of my sorority sisters for our book club. We always meet at one of our houses to share a meal (sometimes just appetizers) and a few bottles of wine. Since the weather was finally cool I was excited to serve soup and crusty French bread. I find it so much better to serve uncomplicated and comforting dishes when serving a crowd. Nothing is more uncomplicated and comforting than soup.

The soup was delicious and a few of the girls went back for seconds. You could easily adjust the recipe to fit your tastes. The flavor of spaghetti sauce will make a difference. I typically avoid jarred spaghetti sauce because I often find it too sweet but when mixed with all the other ingredients jarred is perfect. I used sweet Italian sausage but you could use any meat that sounds good to you. Try ground beef, hot Italian sausage or a mixture of meats. While I used cheese tortellini you could easily use a meat filled tortellini. Make sure you use full fat cream cheese. Reduced fat or fat free cream cheese could curdle instead of melting.
 
Enjoy!

24 oz. spaghetti sauce
1 lb. sweet Italian sausage, browned
4 cups chicken broth
8 oz. cream cheese, cubed
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced
5 oz. fresh spinach leaves
16 oz. cheese tortellini

Combine spaghetti sauce, sausage, cream cheese, chicken broth, and mushrooms in a slow-cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours, on high for 2-3. Stir the soup from time to time to help cream cheese melt.

Half an hour before serving, turn heat to high and stir in spinach and frozen tortellini. Cover and cook until the pasta is warmed through.

http://www.heatherlikesfood.com/creamy-slow-cooker-tortellini-soup/ 


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