Published May 3, 2020

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This Week’s Ingredient Inspiration

I’ve never cooked with escarole before, but I’ve eaten it plenty of times.

There’s a chain Italian restaurant called “Frank’s Pizzeria,” in which I’ve had their chicken escarole soup. Escarole soup is like a chicken noodle soup, but with leafy greens. It’s a light soup and one of my dad’s favorites. Whenever we meet at Frank’s for dinner, we start our meal with escarole soup and garlic bread.

This week, I ventured to my local farmer’s market and stocked up on as many fresh vegetables as I could. This included a fresh head of escarole, which reminded me of the Italian soup I get when I dine at Frank’s Pizzeria.

Thus, for this week’s recipe video, I decided to make this easy and delicious soup!

Ingredients for Tortellini Escarole Soup

As you can see, most of these ingredients are basic pantry staples. If you find that you don’t have chicken broth, you can substitute vegetable broth or water (however, if you only use water for your broth, your soup will not have as much flavor. You’ll have to adjust your spices to compensate).

What is Escarole?

If you’ve never cooked or eaten escarole, you will find it in the leafy greens section of your market. It is not as textured as kale, and you will normally find it among the lettuces.

As researched by Bon Appetit, “Flavor-wise, escarole is part of the chicory family, which means it’s related to stuff like endive, radicchio, and other bitter greens. And yes, as the family name “bitter greens” suggests, escarole is a tad bitter.”

I personally don’t find escarole to be that bitter, once cooked. Research suggests you could substitute spinach or arugula in place of escarole as a flavor. For my soup recipe, I would recommend using kale, if you can’t find escarole.

Tools for Preparing Tortellini Escarole Soup

You will also need:

• Prep

  • Knife, cutting board, and peeler

  • Bowls for each of the ingredients once diced/cubed

• Cooking

  • Large soup pot with lid (for soup)

  • Large pasta pot (for tortellini)

  • Strainer

    • Container for storing tortellini

How to Make Tortellini Escarole Soup

Soup Prep

Most of your time will be spent prepping the vegetables for the soup base. No need to be a perfectionist with the vegetable size. I prefer my onions and celery to be on the smaller side, as they’re added to the soup for additional flavor. If you boil your soup long enough, they should break down and hardly be noticeable as a texture.

I leave my carrots in larger circles/cubes, that way they hold their texture as an ingredient in the soup. I would also recommend roughly chopping your escarole. The outer leaves can be too large if left whole, so feel free to chop them into thirds or tear the larger leaves into smaller pieces before adding to the soup.

Broth Measurements

I note in the recipe that you can add additional water to your soup pot, if it doesn’t look like enough liquid.

Keep in mind that as you cook the soup, some of the broth will steam away. You can keep a lid on the soup to prevent burning off too much of the liquid. Adding in extra broth or water can help with that — though make sure to compensate for additional liquids with seasoning.

Cooking the Tortellini

I specify in my recipe not to overcook your tortellini. I run my tortellini under cold water to stop them from cooking any further, once removed from their water.

I personally do not enjoy mushy pasta, even in soups, so this is why I chill them. Storing them in a separate container from the soup broth prevents them from turning to mush when soaking in the soup.

Right before you serve the soup, you can plop the tortellini into each individual’s bowl. That way they keep their ideal texture.

The Final Product

I left my soup in the pot to cool, so it was still lukewarm by the time I served it.

I dished the tortellini into the bottom and topped with the escarole soup. I added fresh Parmesan cheese and black pepper to the top of the soup.

The chicken was juicy. The escarole was wilted enough to spoon, but not so mushy as to disintegrate. Its flavor was mellow.

My tortellini were filled with cheese. I loved the additional creaminess it added to the soup. As I mentioned before, the onions and celery were barely noticeable, they had softened and cooked away.

I forgot to make garlic bread or crostini, but this soup requires a crisp piece of bread to dip in. It’s delicious!

Recipe Score

I would give my tortellini escarole soup a 10/10 for the following:

• Recipe Level

  • Easy: All you have to do is chop your ingredients and add them to the pot. It’s okay if you add an ingredient out of order. This recipe is how I cook, and my preference for the order of ingredients. Feel free to make it your own.

    You can simmer the soup as long as you want. Usually the longer you simmer it, the more developed the flavor becomes. Keep an eye on your broth, as you don’t want to burn away too much of it (that’s why the lid is handy).

• Ingredients

  • If you cook frequently, you should have most of these ingredients in your pantry already. The escarole and tortellini are the stars of this dish — and what makes this a classic Italian soup.

• Prep

  • This recipe does not take long to prep or cook. If you want to save some time on your prep, you can cut your vegetables and chicken in advance. That way, all of you have to do is add everything into the pot.
    
    Be sure that if you are prepping your ingredients beforehand, that you only do so within a day in advance. You don’t want to leave fresh chicken or onions in the fridge too long, as they can absorb other flavors (even if they are sealed well). For the best taste, I chop my ingredients right before cooking. However that’s not always possible, so feel free to prep a day in advance or use frozen, pre-chopped veggies.
    
    If you’re going to use pre-chopped, frozen veggies, your cooking times will change, because you have to cook off the water from the vegetables.

• Flavor

  • 10/10: I was thrilled with my final escarole soup. It was even better than the soup my dad and I order from Frank’s Pizzeria! The escarole had its own distinct flavor, the tortellini was the perfect texture, and the addition of Parmesan cheese and black pepper

    
    
    

K. Martinelli Makes Tortellini Escarole Soup

Thanks for Watching!

Do you have a favorite dish that you’ve recreated? Have you made homemade tortellini escarole soup before? Tell me about it in the comments or check out my other soup videos here.