Homemade Tomato Soup with Tortellini

My dad loves to cook too-and he has made some really delicious things, like this soup I am about to post about. But I will never forget when he made this Minnesota Hot Dish recipe when my mom was gone and he made me eat it. At that time, I thought it was SO GROSS, onions, peppers, ew, all things I hated when I was younger. Plus I was a picky eater. I hope he never makes that again.... You might ask him about his ULTRA lemon chicken he once made, that was also interesting. He is a good cook though and I like when he gives me recipe ideas, I think he found this one, made some changes, gave it to me, and I changed some things too. So I will tell you how I made it, with just a few changes from what he gave me. It was perfect for this FREEZING day and I loved it. I love all tomato soup, but I never made it myself-a can of Campbell's has always been my easy way out. Kevin liked it too, and I will definitely make it again. I will even eat the leftovers that are in the fridge! Love you Dad and miss you too!

Perfect for a cold day!


Ingredients
1 large onion (I used yellow-I always use yellow)
2 tablespoons of butter
A little EVOO
1-28oz can whole tomatoes
3 cups chicken broth
1-15oz can tomato sauce
Sage to taste (I like a lot of flavor so I used a lot of spices!)
Basil to taste
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
A touch of garlic salt, and a few red pepper flakes
9oz package of refrigerated tortellini (I used Buitoni cheese and garlic, and this was a bit different dad:))
Parmesan cheese to top

Directions
In a large saucepan cook onion in butter/EVOO mixture until tender. Add tomatoes, chicken broth, tomato sauce, all the spices, and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and cover and simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.

After 30 minutes, use an immersion blender to smooth the soup out as smooth as possible-I never had used our immersion blender until today-that thing is AWESOME, saves so much time than having to take it out and put it in the blender/food processor. Continue to blend until all lumps are gone. Then, add refrigerated tortellini to the soup and boil for 10-12 minutes until pasta is cooked through. I kept it at all low boil and stirred it so I didn't make a huge mess of tomatoes everywhere.

Spoon soup into bowls and top with the Parmesan cheese. It was perfect! Yummy:) Time to get my dad an immersion blender!!

Finished Product!