Tortellini Soup, Dreams & Guilty Pleasures

I remember, sometimes in the evening, hours after dinner, my mum would boil some macaroni, and we'd have that as a sort of snack before bedtime, unless I had a sandwich or some other snack. She loved it, I loved it, and sometimes we'd sneak some chopped up sausages in it too.
But then...THEN we discovered tortellini! These lovely little fluffy, fresh pasta parcels stuffed with goodies, mmm - sold! To that little girl and her mother. We'd easily wolf down a packet of tortellini between us, bliss ^ ^

Today, I had tortellini for the first time in literally years (shame on Julie, why deprive myself of such awesome things as these?!). And this time, I didn't have them on their own, but cooked them in a lovely tomato and cannelini-based casserole, so good! I had a bit of a Warm Vanilla Sugar week when I made these dishes as you might have noticed, but that girl really knows her stuff, what can I say?

Tortellini Soup
(Serves 3-4)

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
400ml tin chopped tomatoes
400ml tin cannellini beans
1/2 tsp oregano
A bit of black pepper
100g spinach, roughly torn
800ml vegetable stock
300g packet spinach and ricotta-stuffed tortellini
Grated parmesan and good, crusty bread to serve

- In a large casserole, heat the olive oil, add your onion and soften for about five minutes. Then, add the garlic and fry for an additional minute or two until golden.

- Now, add the spinach and wilt for about a minute, add the oregano and pepper and give it a swirl before adding the tomatoes, beans, and stock. Leave to simmer for about 5-10 minutes to let the flavours get a chance to meld together.

- Add your tortellini, and cook in the casserole for as long as instructed. Mine took five minutes.

Serve up in bowls, top with freshly grated parmesan, and some good bread for dipping and mopping.

Comfort food at its best!

What is your favourite Italian dish?

I also made Katrina's Parmigiana Bianca, and I who normally don't like aubergines, loved these! So soft and tender!

Also, do you remember how I have a Flump calendar? Well after about ten days of flumps as part of my breakfast, I decided that I had to do something, and so I...added them to my porridge! I know, I know, it's childish, but it's SO good! The marshmallow simply melts into the porridge, and so I didn't need to add any sweetener of any kind! This was my breakfast this morning, but the Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Porridge is my favourite so far, hehe...

Also, last night I had many awful dreams, but then I was lucky enough only to remember the amuzing one, it went a little something like this:

Location: What looked like Grand Canyon
Occasion: School trip
So my class and myself were on a school trip to the Grand Canyon, for reasons unknown, but it was awesome! Pupils from Primary and Secondary were there, and we were wandering around until one of the locals told us: One of the carriages on the train has come off, run to the hill there!
And ran to a hill we did, and it must have been the cart containing dessicated coconut, for there on the little cliff lay little coconut macaroons - cooking under the scorching sun. They were delightful, and now I am sad it was just a dream...

This post turned out to be a little longer than expected, sorry about that! Do try this tortellini soup though, it's delicious! The little Yule Mouse says so! (Isn't he adorable?!)

Original source:
http://warmvanillasugar.com/2014/10/26/sicilian-sundays-tortellini-soup/

- Jules