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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This soup is so delicious and absolutely perfect for these cold winter days. Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
Love love love this soup! It’s a hit so I think I’ll definitely be doubling the batch in the future. Followed the recipe exactly as written but subbed spinach for the kale (personal preference). One thing to note – it does get quite thick, so I might be adding a bit more liquid in the future to make it more soupy as opposed to stewy. Highly recommend!
My husband and I love this soup. So easy and delicious!
Made it with impossible sausage and it was soooo good. Great recipe!
It was so good . I loved the kale with the sausage. Perfect for my family.
This is the best soup I have had in my entire life. Truly. Thank you for the absolutely amazing recipe and meal! I used spicy Italian sausage for an extremely kick as it is actually cold here in New England.
Delicious!! I did 6 cups broth instead of 4 and added Trader Joe’s Spicy Italian seasoning. SO yummy!
This is delicious and easily modified. My grocery store was out of hot Italian sausage. So I did a 50/50 mix of sweet Italian sausage & chorizo. I omitted no the Italian seasoning because the chorizo was already seasoned. I ended up adding a little paprika & cayenne pepper. I was worried about the cream making the soup too creamy. It doesn’t. I’m very happy I added it. This is going to be a staple.
My family loved it!! Thank you
Wow this soup is amazing I have made it twice in two weeks because everyone loved it. Followed recipe as written except didn’t have kale so used baby spinach. So silky and flavorful … restaurant quality!
Took a big chance and made this today for Christmas dinner, with no backup plan! It was AMAZING!!! A total hit!!! Everyone LOVED it!!!
♥️♥️♥️♥️
My daughter shared the recipe for this soup with me. I intended to make it as the recipe states but decided to tweak it like my daughter did by add zucchini, mushrooms and Rotel diced tomatoes to give it a little spice as my family prefers it that way. My husband ate 3 bowls full! I guess you could call it a hit!! I’ll be making this again as it’s getting here in CA!!
This soup was so easy and so good! I cannot believe it! Will definitely be adding to my list of recipes.
I actually found a similar recipe from Instacart while doing some grocery shopping. Funny thing is, I’ve always passed Tortellini in the grocery section at the store but was too hesitant to try it. So I bought it, and I made mine with spinach, spicy sausage, corn, canned diced tomatoes, a shredded Turkey leg, and I did add the flour but I didn’t have the cream so it was more brothy, but OH SO DELICIOUS! My God! One of the best recipes I’ve ever made. It came out so pretty!
Ok nothing special.
Disappointed because it had so many great reviews.
Probably won’t make again.
Maybe needed more tomato sauce.
Oh dear! This is what happens when I read out of order. I hope by now you’ve learned that -50 is NOT the norm! And also that the reason we brave such extremes is because Chicago is a glorious place filled with some of the best people on the planet! I can’t imagine living anywhere else!
This is such an amazing soup! Super easy to make, tasty and perfect to eat on a beautiful chilly day to warm your belly and heart!
I’m getting ready to make this recipe for about the tenth time for my grateful family. Sometimes I use tortellini and sometimes I make it with ravioli. Both ways are delicious.
I use half Italian and half mild sausage since my family can’t take the heat. They love this dish.
This is my all-around favorite recipe.
I have made this on a few occasions and I love it. Sometimes I “tweak” it a little but mostly stay close to the recipe. But, tonight I made mini turkey meatballs and put them in instead of the sausage. It was absolutely delicious! Thank you for the recipe…so yummy
I have made this twice since stumbling across your site about three weeks ago. My husband, who is the cook in the family, is not always thrilled when I decide to cook something. I first made this for a friend who is in treatment for cancer along with gouda grilled cheese sandwiches (on sourdough). My husband was only given a taster and he immediately started asking when I was going to make this for “us.” I did make it again right after Thanksgiving. I was going to take a bowl to my neighbor, but my husband laid claims to it! Thanks for an awesome recipe.
Your recipes are always so amazing. Thank you Chungah – I thoroughly enjoy it
Amazing! I did use half beef/half mild sausage and spinach instead of kale. For extra heart attack inducing deliciousness, I added 4 ounces of cream cheese while simmering and topped with shaved parm.
I used spinach too! Delish!!
This soup was so good! The whole family loved it so much that they asked me to double batch it next time! I served it with some delicious home made French bread and a bottle of a really yummy Zin. Thank you so much!
I searched the comments high and low for how to make in an instapot and I couldn’t find an answer so for answer so I tried it myself and turned out AMAZING!
I followed steps 1-3
Then put it in the instapot with the rest of the ingredients. (Not including the heavy cream or Kale)
Put it on high pressure for 5 minutes
Then added the cream and kale.
It was perfect and ready in 20 minutes.
Definitely already have requests to make it again.