Comfort Soup with Kale and Pasta

Chicken soup is touted as 'Jewish penicillin' and I do enjoy a steaming bowlful of it when I'm feeling all phlegmy and congested. (Did I just use the word phlegmy in a blog post about food?) However, my go-to  instant comfort soup is my kale soup with garlicky chicken broth and pasta. (I'm convinced that the chicken broth and garlic have restorative powers.) Better still,  it can be made in less than 20 minutes if you use store bought chicken broth. I usually top it with some good quality parmagiano-reggiano if I have it on hand. (It's always worth it to have a nice size chunk of this cheese in your fridge. It's expensive, but you just need a small amount grated onto a pasta dish or into a soup to add tremendous flavor. Don't forget to save to the rinds too. Just add them to your next pot of pasta fagioli or tomato soup and remove them before serving.)

Usually I'm not feeling well when I make this, so I don't go to the trouble of making my own chicken stock. Sometimes I have some frozen in the freezer and sometimes I don't.  Often I use a good quality, aseptically packaged chicken broth, preferably organic. (Trader Joe's makes a good one and even the Swanson's Natural Goodness brand is quite tasty.) If you want to make it from scratch you have my undying admiration and I'll leave it up to you to find a good one that you like.

I often alter this recipe each time that I make it. Sometimes I add some red pepper, sometimes I add a little bit of lemon zest or a squeeze of lemon juice. Please feel free to make it your own.

Here is the basic recipe:

2 cups of  washed chopped kale (I've been using the flatter variety, but the curlier kind works too.)

4 cups of chicken broth, homemade or store bought

2 cloves of crushed garlic or garlic that has been sliced thin (or more if you're using more chicken broth)

1 can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup of small pasta such as ditalini, penne, or even macaroni ( I suppose you could even break up spaghetti or linguini if that's all you have available.)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat the chicken broth over medium high heat until it has reached  a simmer, but it's not boiling. Add the two cloves of garlic and the kale and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the pasta during the last 5 minutes and heat until cooked. Please note that if you don't eat all of this in one sitting and put it in a container for the next day,  the pasta will absorb most of the liquid as it sits in the refrigerator. You can just add some more chicken broth the next day to make it soupy again. Alternatively, you can cook the pasta separately and just pour the soup over each individual serving.