While in Italy

While in Italy we only spent two days in Bologna, but we did enjoy some specialties of the area. My husband wanted to try tortellini in brodo.

We went to a restaurant for lunch and they were serving cheese tortelloni in brodo. The difference between tortellini and tortelloni is size and sometimes filling. Tortellini are smaller and filled with meat, usually pork. Tortelloni are larger and filled with cheese. I was at the grocery store and saw these good looking cheese tortelloni from Aurora foods and I thought I would make the brodo. Brodo is just broth in Italian and when making this recipe you want to have a good homemade stock. I made mine with the bones form a rotisserie chicken we had for dinner, it would be fun to make my own tortelloni but store bought is fine. The recipe is simple and quick once you have the stock. If I had some parsley or green onions then I would have finished the soup with that.

Tortellloni in brodo
2 tablespoons olive oil

4 cloves garlic, sliced thinly

¼ teaspoon chili flakes, or more to taste

6-8 cups chicken stock

250g cheese tortellini

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

4 large handfuls of baby spinach

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add garlic and chili flakes and cook for one minute until garlic is very fragrant and starting to colour. Add stock and bring to a boil, add tortellini and cook according to package directions. Season soup with salt and pepper. Divide spinach into bowls, ladle hot soup over the spinach, dividing the tortellini evenly. Sprinkle with cheese.

Makes 4 servings