Cold Spell

When it comes to soup, my tastes have always sided with the tomato camp. For years, I've been making tomato soup in all its incarnations from an incredibly basic soup made with crushed tomatoes, olive oil and a whisper of broth to more elaborate recipes like cioppino or a pesto-topped sausage-tomato soup. For a time (ok a year) in college, I was obsessed with tomato ravioli soup and meatball soup. If you ate with me, you uncovered my addiction quickly; I alternated between the two recipes every other night. 

But this week, something in me snapped: I fell out of love with my old favorites. Under ordinary circumstances, this would have been fine for I could just make salads and pastas and sandwiches to stand in for the soup until my cravings returned. But unfortunately, we're having a bone-chilling cold spell this week and all I have wanted to eat is a soup that will warm my noes and toes and fill my empty belly - so long as it wasn't tomato-based.

So out came the cookbooks, piles upon piles of them that I leafed through in search of The Perfect Recipe. I found none. Instead, I discovered my savior outside my cookbook shelf, during the pasta course at a newly reopened Italian restaurant in town. The kitchen's Agnolotti alla Piemontese was elegant and sustaining, with a clear, fortifying broth and little pasta pockets stuffed with beef, chicken, pork and escarole. It was perfection in a bowl and exactly the dish I'd been dreaming of.

I have spent most of my waking minutes since craving this soup, and after a quick online search, I found a version to try at home. The recipe requires few ingredients and the preparation is incredibly simple. Ever one to complicate things, I attempted to make my own ravioli (hence the picture of pasta, not soup, above) though I can't say their flavor bowled me over. They were hearty and filling and good but not good enough to share the recipe with you - yet. So I'm hoping you have a magical stuffed pasta recipe you can use for this soup. Or maybe you live near one of those quaint little markets where a nimble-fingered pasta maker spends every day stuffing squares of pasta for dishes just like this. 

Ravioli or Tortellini in Broth
To contrast the pure chicken broth, I like to use a pasta filled with a hearty ingredient or two, like sauteed chard and ground sausage. For a variation on this soup, try making it with beef broth to give it a bold, meaty flavor.

Serves 4

1 quart chicken stock, preferably homemade
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 pound prepared tortellini or ravioli
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, plus more for garnish if desired
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, divided

Place the chicken stock in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to 2 cups, then keep at a simmer while you prepare the pasta.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the tortellini or ravioli, and cook as directed. Drain and toss with the olive oil, parsley and half of the Parmesan cheese. Place an equal number of ravioli in each of four soup bowls.

Salt and pepper the chicken stock to taste. Ladle 1/2 cup broth over each bowl of pasta and top with a spoonful of the remaining Parmesan cheese and additional parsley, if desired. Serve immediately.

-Adapted from The New York Times