Dill Tomato Soup with Ravioli and Sausage

I love dill more than I could ever find the words to say. Not only is it great for puns– from which I am doing my utmost to refrain– but it’s also so fresh and lovely to eat (what a nice bonus, after the pun thing). Tzatziki remains my perfect food, so I guess it’s really no surprise that I love dill so much.

I’ve seen a lot of lasagna-style soups floating around the internet, and while they sound great, I’ve just never gotten around to making one. But then the temps dipped, the sleet came, and our Hungry Harvest was (understandably!) delayed, and I was left wanting both something cozy and something quick, easy, and undemanding when it came to fresh vegetables. That’s when those lasagna-style soups sprang to mind– they’re definitely pantry-friendly. I also happened to have a bunch of dill impulse-bought (who me?) during my last trip to the grocery store, and it was just what this soup needed to give a bunch of frozen/canned/dried goods a bolt of freshness. If you don’t have access to fresh dill right now, a couple tablespoons of dried will still add nice flavor, or you could go forgo dill entirely and have a more traditional, lasagna-y tasting soup. But if you can get your hands on some dill, go for it– it was just the kick of “green” I needed as winter stretches on (and on), and I bet it’ll be the same for you!

Dill Tomato Soup with Ravioli and Sausage

• 1 lb. link Sausage (I prefer Hot Italian) (no, I don’t see an opportunity to make a joke here, what do you mean??)
• 4 T. Unsalted Butter
• 1 large Onion, thinly sliced
• 1 t. Salt, plus more to finish
• 3 cloves Garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 T. Tomato Paste
• 1 t. Anchovy Paste (substitute 2 tinned anchovies or 1 T. fish sauce)
• 1 t. Crushed Red Pepper
• 1 bunch Dill, roughly chopped (reserve a small amount for garnish)
• 1 32-ounce can Tomatoes (I prefer to use whole tomatoes, but it doesn’t really matter much how they’re processed for this recipe; you’re going to blend them all up anyway)
• 4 c. Chicken Stock (I prefer low sodium so I can better control the salinity of the final product)
• 1 lb. frozen Ravioli
• fresh-ground Black Pepper, to taste

Cook sausage according to package directions and slice into coins; set aside. Meanwhile, melt butter in a pot over medium heat and sauté onions with 1 t. salt until onions are softened; add garlic and cook 1 minute more. Clear out the center of the pot and add tomato paste, anchovy paste, and red pepper flakes; cook, stirring occasionally, until tomato paste has darkened a bit, about 1-2 minutes. Add dill and cook a few minutes more. Add canned tomatoes—if using whole tomatoes, use your hands to crush the tomatoes as you add them. (But be careful– they can squirt! To avoid this, I poke a hole in the side with my thumb first to help drain the tomato, and then squeeze gently to crush the tomato.) Add chicken stock, scraping the bottom of the pot to loosen any browned bits. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low. Blend until smooth, either using an immersion blender or working with a regular blender in batches. Return to a boil and add ravioli. Once ravioli is almost fully cooked, add sausage and reduce heat to low. Heat soup until everything is warmed through, then add salt and pepper to taste. (Remember to wait a moment after you’ve added any salt before tasting again—this gives the salt a chance to disperse and will give you a better idea of whether or not you need to add any more.) Serve with reserved dill and fresh-cracked black pepper.

Notes:

1. To make this soup even speedier, you could always eliminate all the ingredients from unsalted butter through crushed red pepper in the above, plus the canned tomatoes and chicken stock, and just use pre-made tomato soup instead. If you do that, you might need to thin the soup out to get a sufficiently “soupy” final consistency– cooking the ravioli in the soup will add starch and thicken things up a bit.
2. To make this soup vegetarian, eliminate the sausage (maybe replace it with some mushrooms, if you’re so inclined), use a little more tomato paste in place of the anchovy, and use vegetable stock (or even water, adjusting seasonings as needed) instead of chicken stock.