Recovery Day Soup

Posted: November 15, 2024 | Author: dana lange | Filed under: Uncategorized |3 Comments

Russ picked me up at the airport at midnight last night. I saw my sweet girl Ellis waiting to pick up her boyfriend Kevin there at that late hour also. Young people can fly in then and be OK. Old people like me need to recover.

Shay and I slept until 10 this morning. I might have slept longer, but my phone pinged. Probably my phone thought I should get up and not sleep the day away.

I lazed around more than I should have. Talked on the phone for a very long time to my friend Jan and eventually got moving and went to the store. Russ had lived like a hermit while I was gone. He ate only old food I had left him and did not leave the house but once to go buy Shay some hamburger. Poor thing is so skinny we need to cook food so she eats enough. She is particularly happy with this hamburger.

I asked Russ what he wanted me to cook for dinner tonight. He gave me a New York Times recipie for a tomato, tortellini, sausage and kale soup. It sounded delicious, but a little heavy as it called for heavy cream. What in the world. It also only had onions and kale and I thought it could handle more vegetables. So I modified the recipe and was very happy with the outcome. I am sure I liked the lightened up version better than the heavy cream one. I did add double the amount of tortellini so there is the trade off.

1 lb hot Italian ground bulk sausage

2 onions chopped

2 delicotta squash, seeded and chopped

4 carrots, cleaned and chopped

2 T. Fennel seeds

2 T. Smoked paprika

2 T. Garlic powder

1/2 t. Red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper

4 T. Tomato paste

28 oz. Tomato sauce

8 cups of chicken stock

1 pkg. fresh cheese tortellini

1 pkg. fresh spinach and cheese tortellini

1 12 oz can low-fat evaporated milk

1 giant bunch of lacinato kale, de-stemmed and chopped

1/2 cup chopped basil

Juice of a lemon

Parmesan cheese for garnish

Put the sausage in a stock pot and cook on medium, chopping it up as it browns. Once brown add the onions, delicatta and carrots and cook another five minutes stirring often. Add the spices and cook two minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook 2 minutes.

Add the tomato sauce and the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Then reduce to simmer for ten minutes. If you want to cook this soup in advance of serving you can do it up to this point.

With this part of the soup almost boiling you can add the tortellini. Simmer for three minutes then add the condensed milk and the kale and basil. Cook another three minutes until it is hot and the kale is wilted.

Turn off the heat, add the Lemon juice and taste for spice levels.

Serve with Parmesan cheese on the side.

It was the perfect dinner on my recovery day from being away all week.

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