Beef Florentine Pasta Soup with Basil and Cream

I love this soup. It's a great "comfort food" soup with some of my personal favorite ingredients inside. You'll see that I use "Florentine" in many of my recipe titles, I love spinach. The beef stew meat makes this soup nice and hearty. Great quick fix meal, both my boys, even my picky husband ate it up.

I know everyone gets freaky about using heavy cream, but don't look at the fat and calorie count on the back of the carton and just drizzle a little over the top of your soup. It's seriously fab! Don't forget a little piece of garlic bread.

Hope everyone has a great week. I've got some yummy cookies coming this week, so stay tuned!

Mmmm!

Beef Florentine Pasta Soup with Basil and Cream

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1 lb cubed beef stew meat
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
5 cloves fresh garlic, minced
5 Cups beef broth
14 oz can Italian diced tomatoes, with basil and garlic
½ lb dry Campanelle pasta
4 Cups fresh baby spinach leaves, coarsely chopped

½ Cup heavy cream
½ Cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
½ Cup fresh basil leaves, chiffonade

1. Place olive oil into a large dutch oven over medium heat. Saute onion and carrots for 5-7 minutes or until slightly softened. Stir in stew meat, salt and pepper. Cook until browned and cooked through. Stir in fresh garlic for 1 minute then stir in broth and tomatoes. Increase heat to medium high until soup comes to a light boil. Pour in pasta, reduce heat to medium and cook for 10-12 minutes or until pasta is al dente. Reduce heat to low and stir in spinach leaves. Let simmer for 20-30 minutes. Serve each bowl of soup with a drizzle of heavy cream, a spoonful of parmesan cheese and basil ribbons.