It’s funny that I’m calling this Sausage and Tortellini Soup when the motivation behind making it was all the vegetables that I packed into the pot. I was craving vegetables but didn’t feel like a salad, so I decided to whip up a big pot of veggi-licious soup. Last-minute I decided to add some Italian sausage and pasta to make it a more filling meal, and what do you know, the add-ins became the star of the show. :P
Alternatives to Tortellini
I had originally intended to use orzo for the pasta, but found some really inexpensive tortellini at Aldi and scooped that up instead. The cheese-filled tortellini made the soup quite filling and added a good amount of flavor and texture variety. If you can’t find affordable tortellini, you can use just about any pasta shape. If using orzo like I had planned, I’d probably add about 1/2 cup. For larger pasta shapes, I’d probably use about 1/4 pound so that it doesn’t overtake the soup.
Make it Vegetarian
If you want to skip the sausage and make this soup vegetarian, I’d suggest grabbing some Italian seasoning blend and adding a healthy dose of that to make up for the herbs and spices that are in the sausage, which go a long way toward flavoring the entire pot. You may also want to add an extra tablespoon or so of olive oil for richness.
Sausage and Tortellini Soup
Servings 6 1.5 cups eachIngredients
- 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.13)
- 1/2 lb. Italian sausage ($1.75)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.28)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1/2 lb. carrots (about 3-4) ($0.45)
- 1 15oz. can stewed tomatoes* ($0.49)
- 1/2 tsp dried basil ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.03)
- 3 cups vegetable broth ($0.39)
- 3 cups water ($0.0)
- 8 oz. cheese tortellini ($1.49)
- 1/4 lb. fresh spinach ($.75)
Instructions
- Add the olive oil and sausage to a large soup pot (if your sausage is in casings, squeeze it out of the casing). Sauté the sausage over medium heat, breaking it up into pieces as you stir, until it is browned and cooked through.
- While the sausage is cooking, dice the onion and mince the garlic. Add the onion and garlic to the pot and continue to sauté until the onions are soft and transparent.
- While the onions are sautéing, peel and slice the carrots. Add the carrots to the pot and sauté for just a few minutes more.
- Finally, add the stewed tomatoes (with all the juices from the can), basil, oregano, and some freshly cracked pepper. Use your spoon to break the tomatoes into smaller pieces.
- Add the vegetable broth and water to the pot. Place a lid on top, turn the heat up to high, and bring it up to a rolling boil. Once boiling, add the tortellini, and continue to boil until the tortellini is tender (about 8 minutes).
- Turn the heat off, add the spinach, and stir until the spinach has wilted. Taste the soup and add salt if needed (I did not add any, but it will depend on the salt content of the broth you use).
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Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Sausage and Tortellini Soup – Step by Step Photos
I used about 1/2 lb. of Italian sausage for this soup and froze the rest. You can use mild, sweet, or hot Italian sausage. If you get sausage in the casing like I did, squeeze it out of the casing into the pot.
Add the sausage to a large soup pot along with 1 Tbsp olive oil and sauté over medium heat until the sausage is browned and cooked through.
While the sausage is browning, dice an onion and mince two cloves of garlic. Add them to the soup pot and continue to sauté until the onion are soft and transparent. While the onion and garlic are sautéing, peel and slice about 1/2 lb. carrots (3-4 carrots). Add them to the soup pot and continue to sauté for a few minutes more.
Add one 15oz. can of stewed tomatoes, with all their juices. Stewed tomatoes are cooked with herbs and spices and have a decidedly sweet flavor, which makes this soup’s broth super delicious. The tomato pieces tend to be large, so you’ll want to break them up with your spoon.
Add 1/2 tsp dried basil, 1/2 tsp dried oregano, and some freshly cracked pepper. You can see here how the tomatoes have been broken up into smaller pieces. The stewed tomatoes should be quite tender and you can just squash them with the spoon until they break up.
Add 3 cups vegetable broth and 3 cups water to the pot. Place a lid on top, turn the heat up to high, and bring it up to a boil.
This is the package of tortellini I used. When looking for tortellini at the store, you can usually find it in a few places: dried tortellini will be with past in the pasta aisle, fresh tortellini will be in the refrigerated section near cheeses, and often you can find frozen tortelloni near the frozen bread and ravioli.
Drop the tortellini into the boiling soup and boil until the tortellini is tender. Note: Fresh tortellini cooks very quickly compared to dried, so check the package for guidance.
Finally, turn the heat off and add 1/4 lb. fresh baby spinach and stir it into the hot soup until wilted. Taste the soup and add salt if needed. I had an 8oz. bag of fresh spinach and just estimated half of the bag.
And that’s it! A huge pot of super delish Sausage and Tortellini Soup for under $10! You can definitely freeze the leftovers of this, too.
Another hit! Just curious- why do you buy Italian sausage in links instead of just bulk? I’m guessing it is whatever is on sale?
For some reason I don’t see the ground sausage that’s not in links very often. It’s almost always in links in the stores here. :P I wonder if that’s a regional thing.
Another winning, easy week night recipe! This website is becoming my new go-to for our weekly meal planning. Love everything I’ve tried so far!
I’m a huge fan of tortellini in soup (or in anything), thanks for the recipe!
I made this today with some French bread, my fiance and loved it he has requested to have it on the menu
I made this 2 nights ago for dinner and it was SO good. I am absolutely adding this one to my recipe book. I used spicy sausage, and did have to add a little bit of salt, but the directions were clear and easy! Thank you!
Would it taste weird if I used chicken broth instead of veggie? It’s what I have in le fridge. Thanks!
Sure, that would still taste great!
I used petite diced can toms that had garlic, oregano, and basil in it, plus added half a can of drained chick peas, and didn’t do any broth. Just four cups of water and it was very flavorful (did use sausage though so that probably added to the depth of flavor). So yummy!
And sliced mushrooms too.
Meal prepped all of my food for the week yesterday. (Whew.) Made this and it was delicious. Added just a teensy bit of extra garlic and used 6 cups of chicken stock in place of water + veggie stock.
It’s even better the second day!
(Also, side note, thank you for all the great recipes and content. I love this site!!)
I made this today exactly as written. Easy enough for a weeknight meal but tastes like you spent way longer in the kitchen. As I was trying to figure out how to keep myself from going for a THIRD bowl, I remembered that it’s only good for my budget if restrain myself from devouring it. All of your recipes are so good that restraint is something hard to come by!
Do you think a hardy squash like butternut would work in this?
Ooooh, yes that would probably be pretty tasty!
Ooooh, I was wondering about squash myself. Great minds think alike. I have a nice buttercup I need to use.
I’ve made something very similar to this before (with ground turkey meatballs and a simmered-all-day-stock), this recipe is making me want to try it again! I’m so glad the weather is cooling off, to make some of those soup classics again.
This is the second time in two days i am seeing these bowls! What brand are they? I love them!
Love all your stuff!! Thanks!
Ha! They are from Anthropologie. :)
We have some picky eaters in our family… would it be possible to use tomato sauce/paste instead of the stewed tomatoes?
I would suggest maybe crushed tomatoes or petite diced tomatoes, but as I mentioned in the recipe notes it will change the flavor some because stewed tomatoes are cooked with herbs and have a decidedly sweet flavor that other canned tomatoes do not have. It will probably still be tasty, but just not the same. :)
I made this recipe tonight. It. Was. Delish! I am not a tomatoes-floating-in-your-soup type of person either. I used the stewed tomatoes and blended them with my hand blender. Problem solved. The broth was flavorful.
In addition to the veggies used in the recipe, I added a couple of stalks of celery (chopped) and some (maybe 2-3 Tbsp.) finely chopped green pepper. I also used Better Than Chicken Bullion/water for broth rather than vegetable broth. Turned out great! This soup will see my dinner table again.
We make a similar version but we add chickpeas and use small shell pasta in place of the tortellini. So comforting on a cool fall day!
Yummy!!! :-)