There’s something so comforting about a warm bowl of soup on a chilly day. Or how about a 60 degree day?! Yesterday was one of the nicest days in a while here in New York, yet I somehow felt myself gravitating towards tortellini in brodo for dinner.
My boyfriend has been saying for a while he wanted me to make tortellini. And I guess we could have had it with red sauce, but I wanted to jazz it up. Since I know I have enough meat to last us four months in the freezer, I took a look at what we had. At my local supermarket, Decicco’s (my mom and I’s absolute favorite, besides Stew Leonard’s of course), they sell a meatball mix, which is beef, pork, and veal wrapped in one. It usually is about a pound of meat, which is much better and easier than having to individually buy a pound of each (unless of course it’s for Sunday dinner).
When I looked up recipes, a lot of them showed a strained broth. So there wasn’t all this stuff floating around, the tortellini was the star. I really like this idea, especially if your tortellinis are homemade (which mine weren’t today) but nonetheless, you can really let them shine. Even with it being 60 degrees outside, a heartier broth was calling my name. I had beef broth so I decided to use that and add to it with what I had in my pantry. During this quarantine, you have to make do with what you have. Since I used all my carrots for Ina Garten’s Carrot Cake recipe the week before, I was left with celery, onions, garlic and herbs and was going to make it work.
The second exciting part to my soup: mini meatballs!! Being Italian, you learn to make meatballs before you can walk. Although everyone’s family recipe is a little different, the outcome is this tasty little ball of meat. I always used dry breadcrumbs with the Italian seasoning (like 4C). My Nonna, on the other hand, makes bread like every other day. So she uses her day old bread and steeps in milk. A lot of people will tell you that fresh bread crumbs steeped in milk is the way to go to bind the meat together. The milk keeps the meat extra moist and you’re left with a melt-in-your-mouth meatball.
Normally if I was making sauce (“gravy”), I would fry the meatballs first and then drop them in. For a soup like this though, I didn’t want that crunchy fried taste (there’s a time and a place, my friends). So I dropped them right in the sauce to cook along with the tortellini. One pot shot. I love these kinda meals…easy clean-up! 🙂
Tortellini in Brodo with Mini Meatballs
Ingredients
- BRODO
- 4 cups cups of beef broth (32 oz, one container)
- 8 cups water
- 1 celery stalk, cut into pieces
- 2 carrots, peeled and cut into pieces
- Half of an onion, skin removed
- 3 whole garlic cloves, skin removed
- Few sprigs each of fresh thyme and dill
- Parsley stems
- 2 Bay leaves
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 lb Tortellini
- MEATBALLS
- 1 lb total of beef, pork, veal (some stores sell these altogether as the “meatloaf” or “meatball” mix)
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup Pecorino or Parmesan
- 1 cup of fresh bread, torn into pieces
- ¼ cup milk
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- Fresh parsley
- Fresh oregano dried works well too
- 1½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
Instructions
- In a large pot, pour in the beef broth and water. Add all of your vegetables and the bay leaves. If you have twine, tie the herbs together, if not, you can just throw them in there – the brodo will be drained later anyway! Bring all of this to a boil, and reduce to low. Let it cook for about an hour.While the brodo is cooking, it’s time to make the meatballs. In a small bowl, pour the milk over the bread to let steep for a few minutes. In a medium bowl, add your meat mixture, egg, Pecorino or Parm, garlic, herbs, and salt and pepper. Before adding the bread, squeeze out some excess milk, but reserve the milk in case you need to moisten the meatballs. Mix all together. The mixture should be moist, but should hold its form when you press down with your spoon. Take a little more than a teaspoon of the mixture, and roll into mini balls, about the size of a quarter. Set aside the meatballs until ready to use (stick them in the fridge if it’s more than half hour).*In order to make sure the seasoning is right, you can fry up one of meatballs quickly (before you make all of them) to see if there is enough salt, or to make sure it holds its form. This is a good way to taste test since you’re working with raw meat*Once your brodo has been cooking on low for an hour, you want to carefully drain the liquid, so you’re left with this smooth soup that contains only the tortellini and meatballs. Using a large heat-proof bowl, place a colander or sieve over it. Carefully pour the pot over the colander so it catches all of the large vegetables.Now is the time to taste, salt and pepper as needed. If it tastes a little salty, that’s okay, because when you cook the meatballs and tortellini, it kind of absorbs some of that saltiness. Bring the brodo back up to a boil. When it’s ready, carefully drop in your meatballs one at a time. Once they start to float, adjust the heat as needed to bring to boiling again since we are ready to drop in the pasta! Once your water is boiling, drop in your tortellini. You want to carefully stir everything together every so often so nothing sticks together. I normally like my pasta al dente, but when it’s in soup, I prefer it a little more cooked. Should take about 8-10 minutes depending on how big they are and how you prefer it to be cooked.Ladle into bowls, and top with grated Pecorino or Parmesan – and enjoy!
