Week #9 - Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup

This week I asked my facebook friends to give me suggestions on what soup to make. Courtney O. suggested an Italian tortellini soup, so I decided to go with that. I found this recipe on allrecipes (which apparently is my favorite recipe site since I always seem to be getting things from there). Nearly all the reviews of this recipe were five stars. I pretty much followed the recipe, but I almost doubled it.

Ingredients

• 1 (3.5 ounce) link sweet Italian sausage, casings removed  (I used hot sausage and I left the casings on)
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 cups beef stock
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup red wine  (I omitted this)
• 4 tomatoes - peeled, seeded and chopped  (I used canned tomatoes)
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 8 ounces cheese tortellini
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese for topping

Directions

1. Place the sausage in a large pot over medium high heat and saute for 10 minutes, or until well browned. Drain the fat except for about 1 tablespoon, add the onions and garlic and saute for 5 more minutes.
2. Next add the beef stock, water, wine, tomatoes, carrots, basil, oregano and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes, skimming any fat that may surface.
3. Add the zucchini, tortellini, green bell pepper and parsley to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until tortellini is fully cooked. Pour into individual bowls and garnish with the cheese. 

This soup was really good. I'm glad I used the hot sausage because it was just spicy enough. It was very filling because of the pasta.

Rating 4/5