Tortellini and Spinach Soup

Tortellini and Spinach Soup

Monsoon season in Arizona means sideways, blinding rain and loud cracks of thunder fill the sky.  The days can look a little gray, threatening but not always following through.  When the torrents do come, they don't last for long, but our three cats vanish under the bed or in a closet, and those few brief hours can turn even a human heart to look for a spot of comfort.  This tortellini and spinach soup is just such a soup—warm and filling and satisfying.  It was so good and easy and was even better the second day.

Simple, simple, simple.  For us the only "exotic" ingredient was the tortellini, easily found at our local market with the other fresh pastas and cheeses, or can be found in the frozen food section.  We chose the fresh tortellini filled with chicken and cheese, and it worked deliciously here.

Now first a caveat.  I used the entire bag of fresh tortellini (I don't recall how many ounces it had now), which was too much for the amount of liquid.  By end of day two, there really wasn't much liquid left.  It was still tasty, of course, but I would have preferred more broth.  Next time I'll buy frozen tortellini, and reduce the amount I use, and save the remainder for soup for another day.  Bonus!  Secondly, this made a lot of soup.  It filled the slow cooker up to the brim (probably due in part to the generous amount of tortellinis, grins). I reheated it at work for lunch and was happy, happy.  Anyway, I think for the most part, this soup is quite forgiving and there is no real right or wrong, just whatever pleases your palate.  That's how good soups are made.

Tortellini and Spinach Soup

1 bag of frozen tortellini

1 small bag of frozen spinach

2 cans of Italian style diced tomatoes (I didn't drain the cans)

1 eight-ounce block of cream cheese, cut into chunks
4 cups of either chicken or vegetable stock

Put all ingredients together in a slow cooker.  Cook for 5 or 6 hours.  

I'd check this at 4 hours to see how this is going and check maybe every 30 minutes or so thereafter. Give it a nice stir to make sure that the cream cheese is melding with the broth.  I think 6 hours of time for pasta would turn this into mush, but then again I started with fresh tortellini.