The ‘Real’ Chef Boyardee: Kid-Friendly Tomato Soup

Does anyone remember eating Chef Boyardee’s canned pasta?  All you had to do was add a convenient can of water?  Remember?

Was I the only one who ate this stuff?  Who couldn’t get enough of Chef Boyardee’s pasta with mini-meatballs?  Man.  I loved that pasta.  And in particular, I loved the meatballs.

Wait.

Were the meatballs actually made of meat?

Based on the current ingredients list on the back of the can, yes….but  what about all the other ‘stuff?’  Glyceryl Monostearate?  High Fructose Corn Syrup? Monosodium Glutamate? Caramel Coloring? Enzyme Modified Cheese?  What does this stuff have to do with Spaghetti and Meatballs?  It’s unclear.

My assumption is that large portions of the ‘unknown’ ingredients are used to preserve the can’s contents and to create the illusion of homemade spaghetti and meatballs.

While I contemplated sharing my beloved childhood comfort food with my children,  I ultimately opted to re-create the dish using, well….food slightly more familiar, more nutritious and perhaps (perhaps?!) more….safe?  I know, controversial.

Here is my recipe and I think it is a homerun.  To be very honest, this recipe is not a spaghetti and meatball dish, but rather a tomato soup with elements that made Chef Boyardee’s spaghetti and meatball dish so special to me:  the mini-meatballs and alphabet pasta.  Making the soup is a bit of a process, but given the response from my own children, I think I can (almost) guarantee success.    If your kids aren’t fishing for the letters of the alphabet or creating whole sentences, then they will most certainly be busy woofing down this dish.

Child-Friendly “Tomato Soup”

Ingredients:

Meatballs

1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
½ lb ground turkey
½ tsp dried basil
1/3 cup of grated Parmesan

Soup

1 tablespoon of olive oil.
2  tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3 small carrots, diced
3 stalks of celery, diced
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, smashed
24 oz strained tomatoes (or whole tomatoes)
4 cups of chicken stock (or vegetable stock, if making this vegetarian)
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp of sugar
½ a lb of the mini-meatballs (see above and below)
½ cup of mini, alphabet pasta
½ cup of grated Parmesan
3 tsp of half and half
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

In a medium sized bowl, lightly mix all the ingredients for the meatballs.  You don’t want to compact the meat.  Once mixed, roll into teaspoon sized meatballs.  Set aside in a refrigerator until ready for use.

Pre-heat large soup pot on medium heat.  Once hot, add the oil and the onions, celery and carrots.  Once the onions are translucent, add the garlic and salt and pepper.  Add the chicken stock, strained tomatoes, basil and sugar.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover.  Cook for about 20 minutes.

With the heat still on low, using an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth.  (if you don’t’ have an immersion blender, take soup off heat and use a blender, then return soup to the pot to complete cooking).  Increase heat to medium and gently add the meatballs.  Gently stir.   Bring to a slight boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

After 20 minutes, add the pasta and cook for about 5 minutes (if you are using larger pasta, then increase cooking time).  Turn off heat.  Add the cream and Parmesan.   Mix and serve hot (or rather warm, if serving to kiddies!).

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