Tomato & Speck Tortellini Soup

Recently we went on a family holiday away to Rosebud, down on the Mornington Peninsula. We only stayed for a few days and were lucky enough to be able to stay in our friends Mum's holiday house. A quick walk to the beach and the surrounding cafes and shopping district. I even made the 11 km walk one morning with our friend down to Rye and enjoyed the scenery and lifestyle of the peninsula.

We didn't eat out all that much as our friends joined us and we had some utterly amazing and simple Italian food cooked for us by them that I had to try and recreate. What I'm talking about is this tortellini soup. I had never heard of such a thing. I usually put tortellini with a sauce and serve. But this, this meal was to die for. Only a few ingredients were used and I discovered the secret is cooking the soup mix long enough to let all the flavours develop then you add the tortellini at the end and sprinkle with your favourite cheese. We used freshly grated parmesan.



There really is no difficulty in making the dish, you just have to have patience with the cooking time. I allowed myself 3 hours for the flavours to develop and made it on a day were Dave's sister was coming over for dinner so that I could get her honest opinion on what she thought of it as she's not really a bacon person (who doesn't love bacon?!!) and this dish is all about bacon and speck. That's the smell that infuses the house ... that wafts out onto the street and makes all the people returning home from work hungry. It's suffocating ... but in the delicious bacon and garlic way.

God, my mouth is watering writing this post .... I served the soup with some home made bread and voila. Dinner is served. Here you go!

TOMATO AND SPECK TORTELLINI SOUP

Ingredients.

1 Packet of Tortellini (your choice, I used veal).
700 ml Passtata (don't use a heavy sauce you want one quite thin)
50 gm Speck - diced
3 Bacon Rashers  - sliced evenly
1 L Chicken or Vegetable Stock
1 Can of Borlotti Beans - well drained and rinsed
1 Small Brown Onion - diced
3 Garlic Cloves - sliced thinly
Handful of roughly chopped Italian parsley

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Method.

Step 1.
In a Large enough pot (I used a 4.5 L) heat a decent drizzle of oil on medium to high and place in the onion and garlic and cook until translucent. Add your bacon and cook until browned then add the speck and cook until the fat start to render a little.

Step 2.
Add your passata and stock and bring to the boil then reduce the heat to low and cover with the lid and cook for 2 hours, stir the mix when you remember to.

Step 3.
Take the lid off and cook fora  further 30 mins then add the borlotti beans. The beans will help to thicken the sauce. When your about 5 - 10 mins out from serving add the tortellini. The soup is cooked once all the tortellini rises to the top of the pot. Taste for seasoning and add S&P as desired then stir through the parsley and serve.


B x