aptitude might help you in this case.
To find all packages recommended, for example, by apt call
aptitude -F "%M%a %p %v# %V#" search '~i~Rrecommends:^apt$'
it shows the installed version of the package(s) and the version the package can
be upgraded to.
For upgrading all packages recommended by apt call
aptitude install '~U~Rrecommends:^apt$'
The "^" and "$" characters indicate that just the recommendations for the
package beginning with apt and ending with apt are to be considered.
Regards,
Jörg.
