Tortellini Soup - Delicious Meal for A Crowd

The first time I had this soup was at my friend Melissa's house. I believe she made it in her crock pot and it was very tasty and brothy. My version comes out a bit heartier -more like a stew and makes a wonderful meal for our family with plenty left over.  We have made it many times since Melissa was so kind as to share the recipe with me. I usually just get some nice crusty bread to serve with it, something with some flavor like an olive oil bread, a potato rosemary bread, foccacia of some sort or a sourdough. I hope you enjoy it - it is a favorite in our house!

Tortellini Minestrone

Pamela Smith, Flushing NY – From Taste of Home Magazine

1.25  lbs. Italian turkey links, casing removed

1 large onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

6.5 cups low sodium beef broth

1 can (12 – 14 0z) diced tomatoes, undrained 

2 cups thinly sliced carrots

1 cup thinly sliced celery

1 cup ketchup

1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning

2 cups sliced zucchini

1 medium green pepper, chopped

2 cups frozen cheese tortellini

¼ cup minced fresh parsley

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

In a Dutch oven or large saucepan, cook sausage and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer.  Add the broth, tomatoes, carrots, celery, ketchup and Italian seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Add the zucchini and green pepper; cook 5 to 7 minutes longer or until green pepper is tender. Stir in tortellini and parsley. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cook uncovered for 5 minutes or until tortellini is tender. Sprinkle with cheese just before serving.

Yield  - 9 servings

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So that is the original recipe.  Here is what I did to it this time: First, instead of the sausage, it had homemade  mini meatballs in it. 

The Raw

And The Cooked

This was a special request from my Husband and I had the time so it was no biggie but  in the past I have also added left over diced up roast beef, or frozen mini meatballs, regular sweet Italian sausage in place of the turkey sausage.  We have also used the Italian style turkey sausage product, it is healthier and tasty but I generally will go for what we have handy in  the house. I also add other veggies we happen to have around broccoli, green beans, etc. I love adding fresh herbs if I have them around, fresh rosemary from my huge rosemary bush always goes in.  What I like to do is pull out all the items I want to include in the soup and just pile them on the counter and start adding them at the appropriate stages.

 I started with the recipe as stated and sauteed the onions and the garlic.

Then after those are tender add the broth, tomatoes, carrots, celery, ketchup (the ketchup to me is the magic ingredient. It adds a nice tang to the broth) and Italian seasonings  - now, I don’t buy Italian seasoning since I have a cupboard full of herbs and spices so I generally add some oregano, basil, rosemary and fresh ground black pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender. You might notice I had green beans on the counter. I added those at this stage too.

It is very flexible. As I said, this is a good clean out the refrigerator type recipe so you have a little leverage to get creative here. This time we happened to have a little left over tomato sauce hanging around in the fridge so that went in too.

The product next to the sauce is one I LOVE. It is called Better Than Bouillon and it makes nice flavored broths for soups. I love it because those little jars yield a lot of broth without me having to keep a bunch of cans or cartons of broth in my small amount of pantry space, they are economical because you can make lots of broth from those small jars and they do not have any MSG in them like regular bouillon cubes or granules do.  My preference is the Costco version of this product. They carries a larger jar in an organic variety that I do not usually see at the supermarket. I used these in place of the beef broth in the recipe. If you see it I would highly recommend trying this product.

After those veggies have been cooking about 25 minutes add you tender veggies, zucchini & peppers. I also like to add a legume - cannellini beans, red kidney beans or chick peas to make it more minestrone like.These are canned. Be sure to rinse them first. If you'd like to use dried beans you will need to hydrate them overnight the night before you make the soup. 

I added the meatballs at this stage also. After about 10 minutes when the zucchini & pepper are tender add the parsley and tortellini. We like extra soup so I make a huge batch with extra tortellini in it – we buy the tortellini at Costco which has two pillow packs, I use one of those packs.  If you want it to come out big & hearty I would opt for the family size package of fresh tortellini I’ve seen at the grocery store.  After the tortellini plumps up a bit you may have a thick delicious soup, that's a little too thick!

If you like it that way -  great! Dig in! Otherwise add another cup or two of water or broth. The soup is ready to enjoy! We sprinkle it with Parmesan cheese and it you really want to get decadent give it a drizzle of pesto sauce on top. I really encourage you to make this soup your own. It can be easily modified to a vegetarian version as  by leaving out the meat and switching to vegetable broth or more diabetic friendly by switching to 1/2 c. tomato paste and  a couple of tablespoons of Spenda in place of the ketchup as well as whole wheat pasta or whole wheat tortellini which I have seen at the grocery store. I hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as mine does. It has quickly become a favorite in our home!

I've become a "wok"aholic....

I am so happy to be addressing the "eat" part of this blog since that is most definitely my most passionate creative outlet!
Back in May, my Mom helped us buy a new stove since we have been in the process of re-doing our kitchen and our  20 year old stove didn't have the power I really needed to tackle some of the culinary challenges I was interested in pursuing. We wound up getting a stove we are really happy with, a Frigidaire Professional gas range. It really has some neat features such as three  shelves in the oven, convection as well as regular baking modes, a warming drawer, one of those center griddle things that makes great grilled cheese sandwiches, AND my favorite feature the super hot burner. On of my greatest desires in the last several years has been to learn how to cook Chinese food at home, unfortunately I have failed miserably due to among other things: poor technique, low heat and inferior equipment. Ask any true Chinese cook - you cannot make a decent stir fry in a non-stick pan, and as I know from my past life as a Williams -Sonoma sales associate, you are not supposed to cook with non-stick cookware at really high heat anyhow (ruins the non-stick finish dontcha know!).  So naturally once I got my super duper new stove with more power it was time to go out and purchase a wok.
I wanted to make a day of it when we finally headed out on our wok excursion for several reasons; it was my wedding anniversary, my Mom was visiting from out of town and because we don't head into San Francisco very often anymore. So we headed out -  my husband, Robert, my Mom and my daughter-in-law, Shihan and I. We started out at Yank Sing, located at Rincon Center near the Embarcadero and Market Street -  probably the fanciest Dim Sum house in the Bay Area. Our meal was spendy, but sublime! The service was excellent and we really couldn't decide on the superlative dish, each of us had our favorites, each of them better than the next.

Then we walked off our lunch feast towards China Town.I had read an article in a foodie magazine years ago about this authentic wok store there called suitably "The Wok Shop". If you ventured into the wok shop and spoke to Tane Chan, the wok expert you would leave with a wok that would work for you. I saved this article for years and re-read it in preparation for our trip to purchase what I hope will be the star of my Chinese cooking at home efforts! Our experience did not disappoint, I walked in and pronounced to the lady at the from of the store "Hello - I would like to speak to the wok expert" she said "in the back, by the computer." I headed back there and found her. Tane was knowledgeable and charming.

Tane Chan, Wok Expert Extraordinaire

 I told her I had saved and read the article about her and the shop, that I wanted a 14 inch wok and I told her what I wanted from a wok, that charred slightly smoky flavor imparted to the food from a really hot wok.  She explained the Chinese name for that is "wok hee" the energy of the wok. So she recommended I get the cast iron model. Honestly, I would have done whatever she said -her authority on the matter, her ease of explanation and her charm had me fixated on her every word!  Mom and Tane got along great, chatting and commiserating about daughters (apparently when daughters are insistent, bossy, or generally getting on their Mother's nerves  it's because of PMS!lol).

Mom & Tane got along like two peas in a pod!

I would up getting the wok set which included a wok ring, the wok, a lid, a flat spatula and the bamboo brush to clean the wok with. I also added the steamer ring so I can make whole steamed fish, steamed bao and steamed dumplings. When I went to pay Mom treated me to my wok & accessories. I love my Mom and she is so generous even if we could kill each other sometimes!

Mom paying for our collection of goodies at The Wok Shop

 We took the wok home seasoned it in the oven & then with aromatics as described in the literature Tane gave us. We were all pretty pooped by then but were enthusiastic to use the wok, so we pulled together and made three really great dishes.  

 

Seasoning the wok with aromatics

Pork Fried Rice, made from my own idea of what fried rice should be!

 

Bok Choy with Oyster Mushrooms, my d-i-l's recipe, this was sooo delicious!

Shanghai Style Shrimp, from The Seventh Daughter also amazing!

My favorite new cook book is The Seventh Daughter, by Cecilia Chiang, her style of Chinese food is authentic without a lot of heavy thick sauces. I have many recipes in there I can't wait to try with my wok so look forward to those!

I remember......

I remember September 11^th, 2001 like it was yesterday. I remember the clear blue of the sky and the warm summer breeze.  I remember phone calls, lots and lots of phone calls. I remember sleeping in at my Mother’s home in  Queens, NY , the second day of my visit from California and the phone ringing off the hook that morning , all the messages inquiring if my brother who normally worked downtown was okay. I remember thinking in my slumber, ”Why wouldn’t he be okay?”  I remember finally getting up to answer the phone when I heard my sister -in-law voice saying, “Vicky, I just spoke to John – he’s okay” fortunately for us, he was safe at his union hall in Queens. I remember turning on the TV and not  comprehending the magnitude of what I was seeing before my eyes that morning. Unfortunately, we did have a friend in the towers that day. Later I spoke to my Mother, she asked if I could call the help lines to find out anything I could about her friend Janet.  None of those calls yielded any information or news on Janet, it did not look good. I had met Janet but didn’t know her well. She was a good friend of my Mother’s, they had met through their needlepoint guild – each of them very talented in needle arts and the art of friendship to each other.  Janet was a generous friend to my Mom and had even sponsored me $100 in the AIDS marathon I was planning to do in December of that year. It was slightly eerie later that year when I also received the matching donation from her company but I remembered how wonderful a lady she was and that helped carry me in my one and only marathon. 

Janet in her WTC office.

 I got another call that day too, from the fella I had met on the internet a few weeks earlier and had just started dating 10 days earlier. He was also from Queens and had drove me to the airport 2 days before to see me off on my trip home for my best friend’s wedding.  He wanted to know – was I okay? Was everyone in my family okay? I was worried about you….I remember everything that day and the following weeks seeming so surreal.  The quiet was the most remarkable thing. No plane noise from the sky, no chatter in the supermarket, even traffic seemed to quiet in stunned silence due to what our city and the world had just experienced.  I remember after traveling back to California having that same pain in my heart that you have when someone close to you dies and you see others walking around in the world carrying on with their lives - not just for Janet but for my home, my city, New York. 

And I remember choosing my wedding day 2 years later with that fella who called me on 9/11/01. Our wedding date was supposed to be September 25^th, but then a conflict – it was Rosh Hashhana, so we needed to pick a new date. Our choices for the location we had selected were 9/11 or 10/12. As it turned out 9/11/04 was the only date that would fit in our timeline for our honeymoon plans. So we said okay, we get married on 9/11 and we take back the day from those who etched that date in our memories forever.  So on 9/11 and many other days during the year we remember those who are no longer with us, how a few zealots affected world,  and how our lives changed for the better when we exchanged our vows. I will never forget September 11, 2001 or any  9/11 for the rest of my days.