Ultimate Chicken Noodle Soup!

I love trying new recipes and being creative. Luckily so does Marc, he also loves to help me cook, so I feel like I can take on a little bit more challenging recipes. Last week we were watching Tyler's Ultimate on Food Network. He was making the Ultimate Rainy day lunch. He made amazing brownies, grilled cheese with mozzarella and pesto, and the Ultimate Chicken Noodle Soup. In place of the chicken he used chicken apple sausage, and in place of the noodles he used torteillini! We both love soups and got really excited to try it. When we made our dinner list it was the first thing on there. It has been raining for about a week and sounded so good, especially since it hasn't been higher than 60 degrees! We were so excited we couldn't wait until Thursday like we planned, so we made it Sunday! Delicious!! Mine did not look quite as pretty as this

We will definitely be making this again! It really is a time consuming meal. I put Marc on meatball duty and I took over the rest. If their weren't tow of us it would have taken about 3 hours to make. If you do the meatballs before of have someone help you, you can put them in in the right step. Marc said he bragged to everyone at school about how good it was! It is kind of expensive if you have to buy a lot for it. Most of it we usually have but happened to run out before we made it! I halved the recipe and there were still too many noodles. Anyway, here is the recipe. Let me know if you try it and what you think!

Ingredients
For the soup:
Extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, smashed
2 large carrots, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, sliced
1 bay leaf
4 fresh thyme sprigs
3 quarts low-sodium chicken broth
5 parsley stems, plus 1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, for garnish
4 black peppercorns
Kosher salt
Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for garnish
For the meatballs:
1 medium onion, diced
Olive oil
6 links organic chicken-apple sausage meat
1 egg
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 handful fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
2 pounds frozen cheese tortellini, store bought
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
For the soup:
Set a large stock pot over medium heat. Add olive oil, half the garlic, carrot, onion, celery, bay leaf, and thyme and gently saute until fragrant, about 5 to 7 minutes. Pour in chicken broth, add parsley stems, black peppercorns and salt, to taste. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to simmer while you work on meatballs and tortellini.
For the meatballs:
Caramelize the diced onion in a saute pan with a little olive oil over medium heat. Add the sausage, egg, onion, thyme, parsley, and cheese to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until they all come together. Season with salt and pepper. Heat a skillet with a few tablespoons of olive oil until just smoking. Use a small ice cream scoop to drop meatballs onto skillet. Cook, turning, until golden brown.
Drop tortellini straight from freezer into soup. Cook until they float. Once meatballs are browned, add to pot of chicken broth. Bring to a simmer and cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Give soup a final seasoning and serve in shallow bowls with a small shower of Parmesan, olive oil, and parsley.

We didn't add the extra olive oil, and used dried thyme, but next time, we are going to do it all! Have fun and enjoy!

Oh, and Today is Marc's birthday, despite the fact that he wishes it were not! Look for pictures and updates for that!