October 24, 2010

Hearty Winter Soup with Sausage and Tortellini



I have been on a soup kick the past few weeks. Every Sunday, I like to make a big pot of soup that we enjoy throughout the week for dinner. It's a quick and easy meal (mostly due to the french stick we scarf down with it), it's healthy and always satisfying.

As you can no doubt see, I usually gravitate towards cream soups -- cream of leak and potato, cream of cauliflower, cream of squash -- so this week I wanted to make something with pasta in it. Specifically tortellini -- cheese-stuffed are my favourite.

It wasn't long before I found a hearty recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com/ and I simply adapted it to what I had on hand. You could easily make substitutions or additions, depending what your family likes. There's no going wrong with this one, but here's what I did:

Ingredients
  • 3 mild italian sausages
  • 1/2 package fresh tortellini
  • 10 stalks of asparagus, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 5 cups chicken stock
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions
  • Pan-fry the sausage until cooked. Let cool and cut into bite sized pieces. Set aside.
  • In a large pot, melt the butter and sauted the onion and garlic. Cook until onions are transluscent.
  • Add the diced tomatoes, white wine, chicken stock and tomato paste. Stir and let simmer for 20 minutes.
  • Add the tortellini, sausage and asparagus and let simmer until tortellini is cooked.
  • Season with salt and pepper.
  • If desired, top with shredded cheese and serve with crusty bread.

2 comments:

  1. This is a great soup. I decided to use a tin of diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning,I included two ribs of celery diced, and I added 1/2 tsp each of basil and oregano to punch up the flavour. I was very pleased with the results. Next time, though, I will add the pasta much later and will not add more than needed for that one meal; rather than letting the pasta sit in the soup for a number of days,I will add tortellini to later servings of the soup during their preparation.

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