Tortellini and Spinach Soup with Italian Sausage

This is a great hearty soup that I make in the cold weather months. My husband and his hunting buddies request it every year! It’s a forgiving soup, meaning you really can’t mess it up and you can be flexible with the ingredients (if you don’t like carrots, add zucchini). For the sweet Italian sausage, you can either use ground, or bake links and slice them in bite size pieces. I’ve even used shredded chicken (boil chicken breast and hand shred) when I didn’t have sausage. The only rule on the tortellini is either the small frozen or Barilla’s no preservative bagged cheese and spinach. The fresh larger tortellini gets too big and mushy after simmering. The fresh spinach added at the end makes the soup. I’ve served this to guests, who swear they hate spinach, and they loved it.

Tortellini and Spinach Soup with Italian Sausage

• 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 large carrots cut into bite size pieces
• 6 cups beef broth (I use one 48 oz. College Inn Beef Broth)
• 1 cup diced tomatoes (canned or fresh)
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce (I use Contadina plain tomato sauce)
• ¼ cup red wine
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 10 fresh basil leaves, chopped (or 2 tablespoons dried)
• 8 oz frozen or bagged cheese tortellini (or cheese and spinach tortellini)
• 1 bag freshly washed spinach (no need to cut stems, they will wilt down)
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Freshly grated parmesan cheese

Sauté Italian sausage in your favorite large soup pan until cooked through, breaking up with spoon. Transfer sausage to a bowl, saving about 2 tablespoons of fat. Add onion, garlic and carrots to saved fat and sauté until onions turn translucent. Return the sausage to the pot and add beef broth, tomatoes, tomato sauce, wine, basil and oregano. Simmer for about 45 minutes (there will be a lot of broth, remember the tortellini will absorb much). Add tortellini and cook until tender (just simmer, don’t boil soup) about 15 minutes. About 10 minutes prior to serving, add spinach (you may need to add it in 2 doses if your pan is small). Place lid on soup and simmer until spinach is wilted. Spoon into individual serving bowls and sprinkle with fresh parmesan cheese.

Comments

[Heydave]

OK, so the homemade stuffing makes my brain hurt just thinking that I could open a box instead...but this sounds great!

[Helen]

Thanks Dave! It's my first post as guest author, nice to see a comment.