Tortelloni Fagioli with Fire Roasted Tomatoes

This spin on classic pasta fagioli was nothing more than an excuse eat tortellini.

Seriously. I've been craving it ever since I made Tortelloni Di Ricotta Di Noci Tostate but, since I find tortellini so easy to overeat, I try not to make it too often. Then I had a brilliant idea: stretch out a serving of tortellini by adding it to a soup full of nutritious ingredients. As it turns out, the soup that I created ended up being crave worthy in its own right ? and is so much healthier than just eating a giant bowl of carbs and cheese for dinner (which is what I would have done otherwise).

I always say that I like to make soup because it's so simple, and this is one of the easiest yet ? other than chopping an onion, all you have to do is open jars and dump them in your pot. Since there are so few ingredients in this recipe and I wanted to be sure that the final dish was full of flavor, I turned to my old favorite: fire roasted tomatoes. I really love the slightly smokey, charred flavor of these tomatoes and they really added a nice dimension to the soup.

Instead of regular cheese tortellini, I grabbed a package of chicken and proscuitto tortelloni from Buitoni. I LOVED the way these tasted in the soup! They were very delicate but they added a ton of flavor (they reminded me a little bit of wontons). I definitely recommend using them, but if you can't find them ? or if you're a vegetarian ? you can easily substitute regular cheese tortellini.