Monday, April 28, 2008

Soups with Sadiqeh

One of my new favorite people is my friend Sadiqeh. She comes over sometimes on weekends and we eat always manage to have amazing conversations and enjoy equally amazing deliciousness. Both of us being soup fans, we have had soup together on two different occasions.

One Sunday night, weeks and weeks ago, I decided I wasn't really up for all the work I had due the next day and would rather have spent the night avoiding it and hanging out with Sadiqeh. She agreed to come over, even though we live about an hour away and she would have to go home relatively early because she had work the next morning. I wasn't sure what to make but wanted something warm and comforting because it wasn't yet as warm as it is these days. After little coaxing, I convinced Sadiqeh to stop by Whole Foods and pick up some fresh parsley, No-chicken Broth and Parmesan.

When she came over, we made delicious tortellini in broth, with fresh chopped parsley and Parmesan crisps. I had seen "recipes" for these Parmesan crisps everywhere! I first watched Giada de Laurentiis make them on Everyday Italian and then encountered them here and here. I love cheese and relish every excuse to eat it. Tossed into a fresh salad, sprinkled on baked fish fresh out of the oven, spread onto crunchy toast; you name it, and I'll put cheese on it. Soup? No different. This soup ended up being super cheesy because the tortellini was filled with cheese as well (hey, I'm not complaining...), and I thought it would be a good idea to just drop some Parmesan into the soup as well. Oh, and did I mention before the soup we shared fresh tomatoes, toast and Boursin?

Cheese lover or not, this soup was lovely. It was light because of the simplicity of ingredients but filling because of the hearty tortellini. The original recipe serves 8 and even though there were just two of us, I halved the recipe and took the rest to work for lunch the next day. Equally delicious!

The photo down at the bottom is one from a couple weeks ago when we weren't in the mood for anything too heavy and made Amy's Low-Fat Low-Sodium Cream of Tomato Soup, which I have already blogged about, even though it doesn't involve any real cooking. Sadiqeh and I dropped in some extra cream I had lying around to make it extra rich and delicious, and topped it with more fresh torn basil leaves.

Cheese Tortellini in Light Broth
from Giada de Laurentiis
serves 4


4 cups low-salt chicken broth
Freshly ground black pepper
1 (9-ounce) package cheese tortellini
1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

Pour the broth into a heavy large saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Season the broth with pepper, to taste. Add the tortellini. Simmer over medium heat until al dente, about 7 minutes.

Ladle the broth and tortellini into soup bowls. Top with parsley and Parmesan crisps and serve.

Parmesan Crisps from Giada de Laurentiis
makes 8-10 crisps


1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Pour a heaping tablespoon of Parmesan onto a silicone or parchment lined baking sheet and lightly pat down. Repeat with the remaining cheese, spacing the spoonfuls about a 1/2 inch apart.

Bake for 3 to 5 minutes or until golden and crisp. Cool.

photograph taken by sadiqeh

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Soups with Sadiqeh. Its funny, I love alliteration, and most especially with the letter S. This post is just divine. The soups were absolutely delicious, Sara. While I enjoyed the tomato soup, the simplicity of the tortellini was really key to the experience. And you're equally an amazing person in my book.

Should I write a book... I'll title a chapter, Soups with Sara.

RecipeGirl said...

And here I was thinking that Sadiqeh was some sort of new and exotic ingredient that you put in your soup!! Duh.

This sounds like a perfectly lovely and easy soup to whip up. I do love those parmesan crisps!

Chou said...

Yum Yum Yum.