Simple Tortelloni-Tomato Soup with Spinach and Pesto for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

There are Sundays when soup making is a long, relaxed, meditative process and I enjoy all of the chopping and simmering while listening to an audio book. Then there are times like this week where I just want a minimum amount of effort and time in the kitchen. 

I first used jarred pasta sauce as a soup base when I made Nigella Lawson's Tomato Rice Soup and since pasta sauce, tortelloni, boxed baby spinach and pesto were all on sale at my local grocery store, I combined them in this easy and tasty Tortelloni-Tomato Soup with Spinach and Pesto.

Tortelloni-Tomato Soup with Spinach and Pesto
By Deb, Kahakai Kitchen
(Serves 4-6)

1 jar good tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp celery seed
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, or to taste
4 cups water, veggie broth or a mixture
4 cups baby spinach, chopped
1 (20 oz) family pack of tortelloni (I used this one)
pesto & pecorino-romano cheese to garnish

Pour the tomato sauce into a large heavy-bottom pan and heat ove medium. Stir in the garlic, basil, celery seed, red pepper flakes and water. Let cook on medium-low for 10-15 minutes for flavors to meld.  

Turn up heat to medium high and when soup is starting to boil, add the tortelloni and spinach and cook for 5 minutes, until tortelloni is done. 

Serve hot with pesto drizzled on top and cheese shavings, Enjoy!

Notes Results: The simplest of soups to make (unless you drop a jar of pasta sauce straight down to the floor in the kitchen where it promptly shatters, sprays pasta sauce everywhere, cuts your leg with the flying shards of glass and it doesn't stop bleeding for 20 minutes. But I'm sure you won't do that and so I repeat--it's very quick and simple) and really good for the scant amount of effort required. I used mock-chicken stock and a few extra spices to give more dept of flavor and enjoyed the fat cheesy pasta bites in the tomato sauce. tasty and satisfying, I would make it again.
 

 Now let's take a look into the Souper Sundays kitchen:

Tina of Squirrel Head Manor made Soupy Jambalaya and said, "When it gets chilly I like a bowl of comfort food. This is a hearty soupy version of Jambalaya. It's loaded with protein, tomatoes, onions and bell peppers. ... The longer it simmers the better it is.  As a matter of fact, I may start making this the day before and then saving it until the next day so all the flavors mingle overnight. This time I used vegetable broth as there was enough of the chicken and sausage fats to thicken things up. You can add rice as it cooks or serve separately and spoon the mixture over the rice.  That way you can control the amount of rice you want."

From her Weekend Cooking event, Beth Fish Reads shared a recipe for a healthy Quinoa Salad Bento from a cookbook she recently reviewed and said, "Here's the Quinoa Salad Bento from Simply Bento. In the photo (from the book), you'll see that the authors added rotisserie chicken to the bento box, but I think this would be good without the meat. The authors note that this salad will keep for a few days, so you could make it on Sunday for the work or school week to come." 

Thanks for joining in this week!

About Souper Sundays:

Souper Sundays (going since 2008) now has a format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches at any time during the week and I post a recap of the entries the following week.

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here. 
If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's Souper Sunday's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you. Also please see below for what to do on your blog post that you link up her in order to be included in the weekly round-up.

and 

On your entry post (on your blog):

• Mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and link back to this post. (Not to be a pain but it's polite and only fair to link back to events you link up at--so if you link a post up here without linking back to it on your post, it will be removed.)
• You are welcome to add the Souper Sundays logo to your post and/or blog (optional).

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a happy, healthy week!