Tomato Noodle Florentine Soup

I visited with my oldest daughter at college on Saturday and we stopped at a local diner for lunch. Part of our meal came with a choice of soup and I chose tomato noodle. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything I'd ask for again. It was a sort of combination of tomato soup and vegetable noodle, but lacking any real flavor. I vowed then to come up with my own, and this is it.

I use canned tomatoes all the time - it's one of those things that is sometimes just better or necessary canned, so don't feel badly about using them for this. Try to get fresh spinach, but if it's looking bad at the store or you just can't get it, frozen is absolutely fine, I've given measurements for both. As always, I prefer freshly grated Parmesan, but a quality pre-grated brand works fine, too.

Cut your prep time by making the noodles while soup is cooking and keeping warm until needed.

Tomato Noodle Florentine Soup
Printable Recipe
Serves 4-6
Ready In: 30 minutes

1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion such as Vidalia
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic - minced
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
3 cups crushed tomatoes
8 ounces frozen chopped spinach or 1 pound fresh chopped
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4 ounces spaghetti or linguine noodles - cooked al dente and drained well
1 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat a heavy soup pot over medium-high flame and add olive oil. Once oil is shimmering, add onion and garlic. Lower heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until onion softens and begins to turn translucent. Be careful not to burn garlic.
2. Add stock, bay leaf, oregano and basil to pot. Turn heat to high and stir well. Once stock boils, add tomatoes.
3. Return soup to a boil and immediately reduce heat to low. Simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Add spinach and cook for 5 minutes longer, until spinach is fully thawed or limp - depending on which you use. Add sugar and salt & pepper to taste.
5. Remove bay leaf and add cooked noodles and Parmesan. Stir well and serve.

Ravioli, Spinach and Pesto Cream Soup

What to do with leftover pesto and heavy cream? Combine it and do something delicious with it! That's what the impetus for this soup was. Gotta love leftover moments.

Ravioli, Spinach and Pesto Cream Soup
Printable Recipe
Serves 4

4 cups chicken stock
2 cups frozen ravioli
10 oz. frozen chopped spinach
1/2 cup prepared pesto
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb or 1 clove minced garlic

1. Heat stock to a rolling boil and drop in ravioli.
2. Reduce heat to a simmer and add spinach and Mrs. Dash.
3. Cook for 15 minutes until ravioli are heated through.
4. Combine pesto and cream in a jar and shake well.
5. Remove soup pot from heat and stir in pesto cream.
6. Serve immediately.

Chicken Florentine Soup

I really enjoy Chicken Florentine (anything Florentine for that matter!) so deconstructing it for soup seemed like a good idea. It was! Don't leave out the shallots or garlic or the flavor won't be the same. Shallots are like a perfect blend of garlic and onion or leek and add a depth you don't get from just garlic. Even equal parts garlic and onion wouldn't be the same, so please try to find them for this.


Chicken Florentine Soup
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into cubes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
All-purpose flour for coating
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons shallots, sliced
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 6-ounce package baby spinach - chopped

1. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper and toss with flour to coat each piece.
2. Heat the olive oil in a heavy soup pot. Add shallots and garlic and cook briefly.
3. Add chicken and cook until browned.
4. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon and set aside.
5. Pour the wine into the pot and stir and cook, breaking up any browned bits on the bottom of the pot.
6. Add chicken stock, spinach and chicken.
7. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer for 15 minutes.
8. At this point you can thicken the soup with a flour and water slurry. Once thickened, add cream, and simmer for another 10 minutes before serving.

Italian Wedding Soup

Italian Wedding Soup

This soup is my favorite of all soups. I know I'm not alone in that, either. I'm not quite sure what it is about this soup that makes it so wonderful.

One of my friends is of Italian descent, and he told me about his family's traditional get-together to make Italian Wedding Soup. He said they would painstakingly make hundreds of tiny meatballs and that his grandmother would inspect them. If they weren't "as small as the tip of your pinky finger" grandma would make them start over.

I've come across so many recipes for this, but the necessary ingredients for each are tiny meatballs, greens, and very small pasta. I like acine di pepe.

Italian Wedding Soup
Serves 6-8

Printable Recipe

Meatballs:

1 pound meatloaf mix (ground pork/veal/beef)
1 large egg
1/4 cup Panko breadcrumbs
2 Tablepoons fresh chopped Italian parsley (flat leaf)
1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic - minced
1 teaspoon salt

Soup:

10 cups chicken stock
1 clove garlic - minced
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced yellow onion
1 cup diced carrot
1 pound chopped fresh spinach or 9 oz. frozen chopped
1 cup small pasta such as acine di pepe

1. Mix together all ingredients for meatballs until very well combined.
2. Bring 10 cups of chicken stock to a slow boil.
3. Drop meatball mixture by the teaspoonful into the boiling stock - one at a time.
4. When all meatballs have been added to the stock, add remaining ingredients and simmer until carrots are tender and pasta is cooked - about 20 minutes.
5. Serve with extra Parmesan cheese sprinkled in each bowl.

Watercress and Spinach Soup

Watercress is one of those classic soups that you either love or hate. I'm a lover, but I decided to go slightly different with this one. Rather than the usual onion, I used green onion and added some spinach for extra color and a slightly different flavor.

Watercress and Spinach Soup
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

1/2 cup sliced green onion (or scallion) - white and green parts
2 Tablespoons butter or olive oil
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups diced potato (peeled)
4 ounces watercress - leaves and tender stems only
1 cup frozen chopped spinach (if using fresh, about 1 pound chopped)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk - any fat content from skim to whole is fine

1. Melt butter in a soup pot. Add green onion and stir briefly.
2. Add stock and potato. Simmer until potato is tender - about 20 minutes.
3. Add watercress, spinach and salt. Simmer for 2 or 3 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and stir in milk.
5. Puree in a blender in small batches. Return to pot and heat through.

Meatball and Tortellini Soup

I've come across quite a few variations of this soup, but I really like this one. It's a bit like Italian Wedding soup and Tortellini Soup all in one. Make your own meatballs, if you'd like, the frozen ones just make this really quick.

Meatball and Tortellini Soup

Printable Recipe

Serves 6-8

10 cups chicken stock

2 cloves garlic - minced

1 pound frozen meatballs

8 ounces dry tortellini

1 cup diced carrot

1 pound frozen spinach

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Combine everything except Parmesan cheese in a large soup pot and simmer until tortellini is tender. Toss in Parmesan and stir well.