Tortellini pasta sits very well in a cheesy and tangy tomato base. Ripe tomatoes, especially the Roma ones, give a nice sweet and tangy taste. Cream and cheese add richness to the soup. The extra ingredient that elevates this soup is chicken stock. Stock or broth, either of them adds a wonderful depth of flavor. We like tortelleni – both the plain one and the stuffed one. This ring-shaped pasta is soft, absorbs flavors well, and is quite versatile as you can use it in soups, salads, and typical cheesy pasta dishes. These are most often cooked in broth or stock. Tortellini is often confused with ravioli as they are both stuffed pasta. They differ in shape, stuffing, and technique used to make them. Ravioli are square-shaped, whereas tortellini is ring or navel-shaped. The stuffing in Ravioli is filled between very thin layers of stuffing, and we often see ravioli shapes to be bigger than tortellini. Salads – Serve with a fresh salad like this Asian Cucumber Salad or any salad with a lemon or vinaigrette base. Bread – Soups like this are great to have with bread. White bread like this No-Knead Rustic White Bread or Artos: Greek Celebration Bread. Freeze the soup without adding the tortellini. Cook the soup and let it cool. Store the soup along with the tortellini but in separate containers or zip-lock. If there is any leftover and you end up freezing it, then while reheating, loosen the soup by adding more stock to it until the desired consistency. You can refrigerate the soup for up to four days without the tortellini.
