The Hearty Pasta That Bulks Up Your Soups

A warming bowl of soup is often the idyllic answer to a chill snap in the air and gray skies overhead. But the coziest meal your kitchen can produce doesn't always have the robust, hearty bite that guarantees you'll feel happy and full before bed. If all you want is a comforting creamy tomato soup simmering away on the stove, it can be a challenge to also think up (and cook up) the sandwich you'll need to feel satiated or the sides you should have on hand to serve up alongside it.

Putting hearty pasta in your soup is the simple, filling answer. Whether you've made your favorite chicken noodle soup from scratch or are reaching for a can from your pantry, adding a stuffed pasta full of cheese or meat (or both) is an easy, delicious way to bring heft and heartiness to a comforting classic without changing the flavor of the soup you're craving.

After your soup has started to steam on the stovetop, add a package of store-bought tortellini to the pot and cook for as long as the package directions recommend. It's essential to add the pasta after your soup is piping hot so that you can pull the pot off the stove as soon as the pasta has finished cooking. Unlike beans and denser, dry pasta shapes, which can stand up to long stretches of simmering, leaving tortellini to bounce in boiling soup for too long will result in a mushy muddle.

Tortellini (or ravioli) are incredibly versatile, so there are very few combinations that are nonstarters — although we might steer you away from adding pasta to already dense soups like a chunky split pea. In many Italian kitchens, tortellini are usually served en brodo, or in broth. Simple and flavorful, this preparation lets the pasta shine. To try this at home, cook up your favorite hearty stock and choose a tortellini filling to match. Beef, pork, and sausage-filled pastas are perfect for hearty, salty beef stock, while cheese-filled tortellini are excellent for chicken soup stock or a tomato and herb vegetable soup base.

When making a soup recipe from scratch, tortellini also work well as a filling, convenient swap for matzo balls in matzo ball soup, for short-cut noodles in chicken noodle soup, and for the dry pasta in classic pasta e fagioli or minestrone. Of course, you can get even more adventurous and try adding tortellini to a decadently cheesy French onion soup or to a creamy mushroom soup for an extra umami hit. So, the next time you set a pot of soup on the stove, see for yourself how tortellini can make a cold night even cozier.