Creamy Tomato Soup with Tortellini and Sausage

Ingredients:
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 button mushrooms, sliced (optional)
2 tbs. flour
1 bay leaf
2 cups chopped cherry tomatoes
2 Tbs. tomato paste
1.5 cans chicken stock
2 cans condensed tomato soup
1 tsp. dried porcini powder (optional)
2 Tbs. dried basil
2 tsp. dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 package frozen tortellini
1 lb. Italian sausage
3/4 cup whole milk or half and half
grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Heat oil in a large dutch oven over medium high flame. Add the onion, mushrooms and garlic and cook till onions are translucent, about 7 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook another couple of minutes. Add the bay leaf, tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken stock, tomato soup and seasonings and bring to a simmer. Turn heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour.

Meanwhile, cook your sausages and brown them all over. Slice into rounds and brown those too. Add the sausage and tortellini to the soup. When tortellini is cooked, stir in the milk. Remove bay leaf. Serve with grated parmesan cheese and slices of buttered rustic bread.

Easy Homemade Chicken Stock

Making your own chicken stock is actually pretty easy and far more delicious than store bought stock.

I like to make the most of a Costco rotisserie chicken. I can stretch it for three meals.

1. Chicken with stuffing and glazed carrots

2. Chicken pesto lasagna roll-ups

3. Chicken noodle soup

The secret to tasty chicken stock is in the bones. By crushing the chicken bones you release all the marrow and yummy goodness into the stock. You know you have a good stock when it's like Jell-o in the fridge -- that means the bones really got into the stock. I do cheat a little bit by adding a can of store bought stock just to boost the flavor, but it's not necessary.

Ingredients:
1 leftover rotisserie chicken
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
handful of fresh parsley
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 bay leaf
6 cups water
1 can chicken stock (optional)
salt and pepper

Directions:
Remove all the edible meat left on the chicken and store in the fridge (in case you'd like to use it for chicken noodle soup later).
Using a mallet or the bottom of a wine bottle, crush that carcass so that all the bones are broken up.
Heat the oil over medium high in a large soup pot. Add the onion, celery and carrots and cook for about five minutes. Add the chicken, parsley, rosemary, thyme and bay leaf and cook till onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add pepper to taste. Add the liquid, cover and simmer for about three hours. Salt to taste.

Set a fine-mesh strainer over a large liquid measuring cup and carefully strain the stock to remove bones, veggies and other flavor enhancers. You may need to do this in batches. Toss the solid ingredients. Store stock in jars. You can freeze the jars but make sure not to fill them all the way to the top to allow stock to expand when freezing (science!)

If you're making chicken noodle soup, add the chicken meat back to the stock. Add egg noodles to boiling soup and cook till al dente. Yum!

Spectacular Minestrone

My baby son has had a cold all weekend. In an effort to get some nutrients in him, I pulled out of the cupboard a pouch of pre-made baby minestrone soup. It was pretty bland and I didn't have high hopes, but Jack ate the entire thingie of it in a matter of minutes.

It wasn't good and I figured I could easily make something one hundred times tastier.

And I did.

I wanted an authentic minestrone so I turned to legendary Italian cookbook author Marcella Hazan. In her book, "More Classic Italian Cooking," she has a recipe for Minestrone alla Novarese. She calls it "spectacularly hearty," and she doesn't let you down. It's a bit different from a typical minestrone, but that's what I wanted. The ingredients were easy to find and the soup is simple and delicious.

And minestrone always tastes better reheated the next day. I am sure it will be a hit with Jack.

I made some very slight changes, but the red cabbage adds so much depth of flavor, like none I've ever tasted. I was surprised how little tomatoes the recipe called for, but I trust Ms. Hazan through and through.

Serve this with some hearty artisan bread and a glass of red wine.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbs. butter
2 slices of bacon, cut into little bits
1 onion, sliced very thin
1 medium carrot, diced
1 celery rib, diced (use the leaves)
2 zucchini, diced
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1 can cannellini beans, partially drained
1/3 cup canned Italian tomatoes, chopped with their juice (I accidentally bought pre chopped kind, so I eyeballed it)
salt and pepper
1.5 cups chicken broth

Directions:
Add the oil, butter, bacon, and onion to a soup pot and turn heat to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are golden -- about 20 minutes.

Add all of the diced veggies and the cabbage and thoroughly coat in the oil and fat. Mmmm...fat is good. Stir around for a minute or two.

Add the tomatoes with their juice, a tiny bit of salt, and lots of freshly ground pepper. Add the broth and as much water as needed to cover the veggies by one inch.

Cover and simmer on very low for at least two hours. Skim off some of the excess fat with a spoon. Add the beans with some of their liquid 15 minutes before serving.

Sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese when served.

If you like noodles in your minestrone, I'd add the dry noodles toward the end and serve right when the noodles are al dente.

Short Cut, Long Cut Chicken Noodle

I call it short cut because we don't make the broth ourselves and we use leftover Costco roast chicken. I call it long cut because we make our own noodles from scratch.

Ingredients:
6 cups of chicken broth or stock
2 cups water
cooking oil
1/2 onion, coarsely chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 next-day roast chicken
salt and pepper to taste

For the pasta:
2 cups white flour, plus extra
1 tbs. warm water
3 eggs
pinch of salt

Directions:
Place the flour and salt in a mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. Add the water and eggs and beat with a fork. Slowly incorporate the flour till you have a dough. Mix in as much flour as you can while kneading. Your dough should be elastic but not sticky. Cover the ball of dough and set aside.

Meanwhile, add the onion, celery and carrot to a large saucepan and drizzle in some cooking oil. Cook over med-high heat, stirring occasionally, till onions are translucent -- about 10 minutes.
While veggies cook, salvage as much chicken meat from your leftover roast chicken. Don't forget about the meat on the bottom of the bird.

Add the broth, water and chicken. Salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and turn heat to med-low.

Now roll out the pasta with your pasta maker. Run a lemon-sized piece of dough through the largest setting. Fold it in half and flour the outsides if it's sticky. Run through again. Do this about eight times on the biggest setting. Change to the next setting and run dough through once. Do this till you get to the "6" setting. Lay dough on a floured surface.

Do this step again with lemon-sized pieces of dough until it's all pressed out. Dust noodles with flour and loosely roll up each one. Slice into wide noodles, then determine how long you want the noodles to be and cut to your preferred length.

When all the noodles are cut, add them to the soup. Turn heat to high and return to a boil. Cook for about 5 minutes or until noodles are al dente. They will cook more as the soup cools.

Enjoy!

Cream of Porcini Mushroom Soup

Serves about 5
Ingredients:
2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
6 oz. fresh button mushrooms
6 oz. fresh cremini mushrooms
3 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup white wine
1 teaspoon porcini powder (optional; found at specialty spice shops)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
liberal amount of freshly ground pepper
1 cup half and half
3 tablespoons fresh italian parsley, chopped

In a small saucepan, add the dried mushrooms and chicken stock. Bring to a boil, turn heat to med/low and simmer 20 minutes. Blend with a hand blender or transfer to a blender.
Remove the stems from the fresh mushrooms and give them about 6 pulses in a food processor (till well chopped). Slice the caps.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the caps and stems. Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the mushrooms' liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
Add the wine and scrape up the bottom of the pan. Bring to a simmer and add the porcini/stock mixture, the porcini powder, the thyme, salt and pepper. Let simmer on med/low heat for 10 minutes.
Add the half and half and the parsley and let simmer 10 minutes.
Serve with warm crusty bread.