Spinach Tortellini Soup

Week after the birthday. Back to ordinary time. The midterm is this Thursday and I have been studying every evening, which means my cooking has gotten simpler. Eggs for dinner twice this week, fried eggs over leftover rice, which is better than it sounds with a little hot sauce and a few sliced scallions on top. Quick and filling and not a project.

Elijah has started to open up in the way that children do when they finally decide you are safe: all at once. He talked to me for twenty minutes on Wednesday, a running narration of what he was building with the blocks, which he called a house, and then a fire station, and then a zoo. He asked me to sit with him. I sat. We built a zoo together and he named all the animals. Ms. Patricia watched from across the room and caught my eye and nodded once. Twelve years of experience, nodding once. I understood what that meant.

The midterm went well, I think. Dr. Watkins asks essay questions, which means you have to actually understand the concepts and not just memorize them. I wrote about secure attachment and how it develops in the first years and I used Elijah as an example without naming him. When I wrote it out I could see how much I already knew before the class and how the class had given me a frame to hang it on. That is what education is for, I think. Not to tell you what is true but to show you the shape of what you already know.

I made chicken soup this Sunday because the weather finally really turned and chicken soup is what you make when the season changes and you want to mark it. Stock from scratch, vegetables, herbs, good noodles. The apartment smelled like fall.

After the midterm and the studying and the fried eggs over rice, I needed a pot of something that would fill up the apartment with warmth. The tortellini soup was exactly that kind of project — not complicated, but deliberate. The kind of cooking that says the simple weeks are behind you and the season has turned into something that asks for a pot on the stove and nowhere else to be.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
8 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (9 oz) package refrigerated cheese tortellini
4 cups fresh baby spinach
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Salt and black pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving

Instructions

Sauté the aromatics. Heat olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Build the broth. Pour in the chicken broth and diced tomatoes with their juices. Stir in the oregano, thyme, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
Cook the tortellini. Add the cheese tortellini to the simmering soup and cook according to package directions, usually 5 to 7 minutes, until they float and are tender.
Add the spinach. Stir in the fresh spinach by the handful, letting each addition wilt before adding more. This takes about 2 minutes total.
Season and serve. Stir in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Nutrition (per serving)

Spinach Tortellini Soup — The One I Make When the Season Finally Turns