Sausage and Tortellini Soup with Kale
Tomato broth, dried tortellini, and a summer sausage you carry at room temperature.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 6.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 120
- protein
- 31 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- 700 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Winter / snow
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | dropper bottle |
|---|---|---|
| Dried Italian-style sausage | 5 oz | hard salami or a shelf-stable summer sausage, diced small |
| Dried onion flakes | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried carrot | 1/4 cup | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Chicken bouillon | 2 tsp | makes about 700 ml of broth |
| Tomato powder | 1/3 cup | stands in for the canned tomatoes and sauce |
| Dried oregano and basil | 1 tsp each | |
| Red pepper flakes | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried cheese tortellini | 6 oz | the shelf-stable boxed kind, not refrigerated |
| Powdered whole milk or cream powder | 3 tbsp | |
| Cornstarch | 2 tsp | |
| Dried kale | 1/2 cup | crumbled, packed loose |
Method
- Heat the oil in the pot and toss the diced sausage until the edges darken and the fat renders out. Two minutes.
- Add 700 ml of water, the onion, carrot, garlic, bouillon, tomato powder, herbs, and pepper flakes. Stir until the tomato powder dissolves and bring it to a boil.
- Add the tortellini and boil until tender, 8 to 11 minutes depending on the brand. Stir often or it welds to the bottom.
- Whisk the milk powder and cornstarch into a few tablespoons of cold water in your cup, then stir that into the pot. One minute of simmering and the broth thickens.
- Kill the heat, stir in the kale, and put the lid on for three minutes. It rehydrates in the residual heat and stays green.
The original is a kitchen soup: fresh sausage, refrigerated tortellini, heavy cream, two cans of tomato. All four have shelf-stable stand-ins. Dried salami browns and renders like raw sausage does, tomato powder rebuilds both the tomatoes and the sauce from a third of a cup, and milk powder plus cornstarch does what cream does without a cooler. Dried boxed tortellini takes about ten minutes in boiling broth, which is the whole reason this fits one pot.
Kale goes in off the heat, at the end. It is sturdy enough to rehydrate in a covered pot without turning to slime, and it holds its shape in leftovers if you carry a second serving. The cornstarch matters more than it looks: without it the milk powder sits in a watery broth instead of coating the pasta.
Packing
Two bags: one with tortellini, one with everything dry that goes into the broth. Sausage and the oil bottle ride separately. Mix the milk powder and cornstarch together at home so you only make one slurry.
Variations
- Swap the tortellini for small dried pasta and add a handful of parmesan at the end.
- No tomato powder? Two tablespoons of tomato paste from a tube works and weighs less than a can.
- Skip the slurry entirely on a cold night and drink it as a thinner broth.
https://www.pinchmeimeating.com/italian-sausage-tortellini-soup