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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Such a yummy recipe! I do half mild Italian and half hot sausage. I also use reduced sodium chicken broth because regular makes the soup too salty.
Everyone in my house LOVED this soup! It will be in my soup rotation from now on. I am gradually cooking my way through your soup recipes…. all have been delicious!
Excellent! Our new favorite soup. We doubled the tortellini and heavy cream and used 6 cups of chicken stock and 12 oz tomato sauce. Turned out great!
Love this soup. Double the recipe every time. We do not enjoy Kale so improvise with spinach. I also to not add the flour. Add a little extra totilinis and the soup is thick enough for us.
So easy and delicious! Ty for sharing!
I love this soup!!
I’ve made it many times and always double the recipe. I usually rotate between kale or spinach
and sometimes 1/2 mild and 1/2 hot Italian sausage. Tonight it’s kale and mild sausage.
I also add more cream. About 1/3 cup-ish for the double batch.
The ONLY beef I have with this recipe and most online recipes is the time for prep and cooking.
It says 15 min. prep and 15 min. cook for this one.Nope,Every time I make it I try and be faster and more efficient but cant get close to those times! 1 1/2 hrs min. for me but I do get distracted easily!
This is definitely a soup to try and my slow prep times don’t do it justice!!
This was so yummy. I added a bit of Maggi and some thyme. One of the best soups ever!
Im not really a big cook, I actualy only started last year from chefs plate and hello fresh, before that it was all frozen. I got kinda bored with those, its like the same every month. so I found this and DAMN it is such an amazing recipe, so easy, basically no prep either. I wouldn’t even change anything, oh I did actually lol I added baby spinach instead of kale just because I hate prepping kale so not really even a taste thing there.
Im not really a big cook, I actualy only started last year from chefs plate and hello fresh, before that it was all frozen. I got kinda bored with those, its like the same every month. so I found this and DAMN it is such an amazing recipe, so easy, basically no prep either. I wouldn’t even change anything, oh I did actually lol I added baby spinach instead of kale just because I hate prepping kale so not really even a taste thing there.
Made this tonight with Hot Italian sausage and lots of spinach instead of kale. We loved it! So easy and so tasty!
We absolutely love this soup so much! It’s easy to make for a great weekday dinner. I use spinach in place of the kale. This is definitely a keeper!
I’ve relied upon an excellent tortellini soup recipe for years. This one is better and will be my new go-to version. Thanks!
I made this for the first time tonight. It was both quick and easy to make and the flavours were delicious. My picky teenage daughter enjoyed it and my husband had seconds. Looking forward to leftovers tomorrow night! This will definitely be a regular in my fall/winter comfort food meal rotation.
This is now on regular rotation in my home! It is so easy and always a hit with everyone who tries it. It is hearty and tasty, perfect for winter.
We sometimes swap the kale for spinach— both are great. I usually add a diced red pepper after softening the onions in to up the veggie content.
This was delicious and absolutely perfect for a cold December evening! Even my picky mom and nephew complimented it, which is rare. I did stretch it a bit by adding extra kale, tomato sauce, broth and cream. I also threw in a few tablespoons of some chopped sun-dried tomatoes. It was hearty and flavorful.
Made this tonight for dinner. It’s a new “Fan Favorite”. My son gave it “better than a 7 on a scale of 1-10”. Easy to make. I followed the directions almost exactly, I added the tortellini and the kale at the same time as I had fresh tortellini from the local Italian market. Will definitely make this again.
So good. So easy. So loved by my family
I made this recipe for a weeknight meal. It was awesome. I did use fire roasted tomatoes and a slice of parmigiana rind. I used a few more tortellini’s. Great recipe!
This was fantastic! I made everything as close as I could. I didn’t have tomato sauce so I puréed a can of diced tomatoes and used 3/4 of that with two tablespoons tomato paste. I also planned to use fresh leaf spinach but the bag I had was unfortunately bad so I used frozen peas instead which turned out great! Thanks for the recipe!
Very easy and tasty recipe. Will use it again on these chilly fall nights!