Creamy Tortellini Soup
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My favorite cozy weeknight soup made in 30 min! Loaded with tender tortellini, sausage and kale! And it’s so easy!
Featured Comment
Have you seen the news? It’s apparently -50 degrees windchill in Chicago right now. I wish I was joking. Meanwhile, it was 69 degrees F here in LA today. How will Butters and I survive in the Windy City?
I’ve loaded up on parkas and electric blankets for myself and Butters. But I don’t know, guys. It’s going to be a dicey winter for us Californians.
But what I do know is this – have as much of this creamy tortellini soup as possible until the polar vortex passes. That and all the crusty bread to sop up all this creamy goodness.
Oh, and the wine. That helps warm you up too, no?
tips and tricks for success
- Use fresh tortellini. Fresh tortellini will cook much faster than dried or frozen tortellini, and will yield more softer pasta.
- Add the cream slowly. Always add the heavy cream at the very end, pouring very slowly to prevent curdling.
- Save leftover Parmesan rinds. Get more out of those expensive Parmesan cheeses by using up the leftover rinds! Adding a Parmesan rind slightly thickens the broth and adds a level of nutty richness to the soup.
- Store tortellini separately for leftovers. When planning for leftovers, store the cooked tortellini separately from the soup to prevent it from soaking up all the broth.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
what to serve with tortellini soup
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
Creamy Tortellini Soup: Frequently Asked Questions
Swiss chard, baby spinach, collard greens, and cabbage are all great options.
We love using fresh cheese tortellini for a more neutral base but your favorite tortellini would also work very well here.
Absolutely! Dried tortellini can be cooked in a separate pot and added to the soup at the end of cooking time until warmed through.
Heavy cream (or heavy whipping cream) has one of the highest fat contents with about 36-40% fat. Half and half or whole milk are suitable substitutes, but will yield a lighter result.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers without the tortellini and heavy cream (cream soups tend to separate when frozen) in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop, adding cooked tortellini and heavy cream when serving.
Creamy Tortellini Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound Italian sausage, casing removed
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 medium sweet onion, diced
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 (3-inch) Parmesan rind, optional
- 1 (9-ounce) package refrigerated three cheese tortellini
- ½ bunch kale, stems removed and leaves chopped
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Equipment
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add Italian sausage and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the sausage as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Stir in garlic, onion and Italian seasoning. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
- Stir in chicken stock, tomato sauce and Parmesan rind, if using. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced and slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in tortellini; cover and cook until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
- Stir in kale until wilted, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in heavy cream and basil until heated through, about 1 minute; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately.
Video
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Delicious, perfect on cold, rainy days, only change I make is using hot sausage.
Excellent soup. On average, everyone had two bowls served with homemade buns. Even the finicky eaters
This is a great recipe – one of my favorites. It’s very forgiving. I refrigerate the leftovers and bring them to work for lunch. It gets thicker and is somehow even more amazing.
Very good, will definitely make again. But wondering if anyone has frozen it for later. I’m only one person house for. Dunno if I’ll eat itall
You can’t freeze anything with dairy in it. I would make it and add the dairy as you reheat it. Don’t put the pasta in it either. Save that for the time you eat it as well.
Sooo good!! Only change I made was adding. more torttilloni and more broth.
Also used spinach vs kale
Soo yummy!!
Even my kids like it and not one person complained❤️
It was delicious!
I used spinach instead of kale, spicy italian sausage, and 1lb of tortellini instead of 9oz, it was less soupy.
My son whos usually is picky, gobbled it up!
KEEPER FOR SURE!
I found this recipe a few months back and since then have made it almost every week! Super easy and so delicious. Could possibly be my favorite soup recipe. My boyfriend even loves it and he isn’t a fan of kale.
I’ve made this so many times I don’t even need to refer to the recipe anymore. Superb!!!
Does anyone know if you can use dried tortellini instead and just adjust the time? I only gave the dried tortellini from Trader Joe’s in the house.
I made this exactly per the recipe but forgot to drain the excess oil. it was absolutely delicious! I look forward to our leftovers! My husband says it’s delicious, he’s glad he ate it and its in his gut feeling great.
Delish! We made our own “Italian” sausage using ground turkey and Italian seasoning since my husband doesn’t eat red meat. Watch the salt (we only added it to our Italian seasoning cooked with ground turkey). Otherwise, the salt from the canned tomato sauce, the broth (we also used homemade) and the tortellini is plenty. A hearty soup for a freezing cold Pennsylvania night! If you love cheeseburgers, you’ll love this soup:)
Very easy, and super tasty! Perfect for a chilly night.
This was amazing!!
This is THE BEST soup I have ever made. It’s like I ordered it from the restaurant. Each ingredient does its part and the seasoned broth alone is so flavorful. I wanted to try something new and have been wanting to do a tortellini soup and this recipe hit the spot! I will be making it again, and again….and again in the future.
This soup is soooooo good!
I also decided to sub the kale for spinach, used spicy Italian sausage and a little bit less tomato (I used a pizza sauce can I had kicking around my cupboard)
Oh. My. Goodness! Seriously heaven in a bowl. It was so good I made it again and this time I just mixed it with whatever broth I had n did it by taste.. did not fail! This is definitely going to be a staple recipe for me.
Very delicious. Made some changes tho. Not a sausage fan so I substituted baked miniature meatballs I made.
Store was sold out of tortellini so I used 3 cheese miniature raviolis. I too like others used cut up spinach leaves. Also added an extra can of broth therefore I added more half n half.
OMG this was so good, ate 2 large bowls. I’m going to add something with a small taste of heat next time.
Definitely a keeper. So glad I ran across this. Ty for sharing
Uh, how do you know it’s delicious? You didn’t make it, you made yours!
Delicious and my picky husband and kids loved it. Will definitely be making this again. Next time I will be doubling the recipe and adding extra broth.
This was delicious. I used spicy Italian sausage, double the amount of tortellinis, and a little extra stock to compensate for the extra tortellinis. I will say, as other commenters have noted, the time estimate for this recipe is not accurate. I am a proficient cook, and I made this start to finish with no interruptions – it took about 45-50 minutes.
Disclaimer: I did not use Italian sausage because I didn’t have any and subbed spinach for kale (what I had).
This soup is AMAZING. Every bite I’m surprised again about just how insanely delicious it is. Make this. You will not regret it. I will be making this probably once a week for the rest of my life.