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
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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.
Are we allowed to curse around here? Delicious AF! I made a double batch – changed nothing and it’s delicious!
Easy and delicious!!!
Easy and delicious!
I’m toying with the idea of adding radishes. Any thoughts? This I think is the best recipe I’ve ever tried of yours.
Radishes are great! Adding them to this recipe would be unexpected, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. It’s up to you, depending on preference, on when to add them. If you want them to soften up, I would cut them into halves or quarters (depending on the size) and sautee them with the other veggies. For extra crunch, you could slice them super thin and add them at the end of the recipe. Definitely save the tops! Radish greens are delicate like spinach and have a peppery flavor similar to arugula, and they are my very favorite part! I would stir them in them at the very end once the heat is off like you would the spinach. ~ Marion :)
Super yummy & super easy.
Mods we made:
Blended up a can of mixed beans to add more protein to the broth – it changes the colour of the soup a bit but doesn’t change the flavour.
We are a household of two and we’re grateful for the leftovers – however w our first batch we learned to modify pasta amounts bc we found that the left-over tortellini absorbs so much of the liquid there was hardly any broth leftover. For our second batch we measure enough tortellini for one meal, the next day we added more tortellini while reheating, works great.
Thanks for this delicious recipe!
Hi, there! You are totally right! Any type of pasta/grain will do this if left in a brothy situation (not only soaking up all the liquid, but becoming bloated and unappetizing, too!) — so it’s always a good idea to cook and store it separately if you plan to have leftovers! — Marion :)
Winner winner soup for dinner!! This was an easy one to love. The family was happy with it. I liked it and I don’t even like sausage. And I used subpar hot sausage that had been frozen a while so it’s a forgiving and yummy recipe. Highly recommended!
I found this a bit bland for my taste, but potentially because I used pre-cooked chicken Italian sausage and added them to the pot with the tomatoes instead of cooking pork sausage in the pot. Added a couple of drops of lemon juice and more garlic power to my bowl after tasting and that helped. Cannot understate how easy this came together, so the method is nice. If I make this again, I’ll probably use regular Italian sausage and orzo.
Delicious soup with all the elements to make it super satisfying! Will definitely make this again!
We’ve made this many times over the years, and have really enjoyed it.
Adjustments I’ve made that have become routine:
– 12 oz dried cheese tortellini
– 1 lb sausage (instead of 1/2)
– frozen spinach
– 2 cans stewed tomatoes
– deglaze with glug of white wine after sausage, before adding onions.
– liquid adjustments – have 2 inches of liquid covering the non-pasta components, then add pasta. Use the same stock to water ratio
I make this with butternut squash filled ravioli-it’s out of this world !
I have some frozen ravioli. Do you think I could use that instead of tortellini?
Yes :)
So our King Soopers in the meat case has Hot Italian sausage by the pound that is really good, they have the hot and mild both we even use it in spaghetti give it a try.
One of our favorite no matter the time of year!
I made a variant of this but added bacon and potatoes and made it in the crockpot! It was delicious! Highly recommend!
Amazing recipe
I’ve recommended this recipe to just about everyone I know. At first I was worried it might be a bit watery, like some vegetable soups, but this one is packed with flavor. I’ve made it a few times now and sometimes I’ll substitute the tortellini for whatever pasta we have sitting in the pantry — not as great as tortellini but it works just fine, just be mindful of proportions or else the pasta will dominate the soup (I learned that the hard way — still delicious though!). I also usually substitute frozen spinach because it’s always on-hand — works just fine.
Love this site so much — every recipe is consistently delicious, easy, and inexpensive! And this is one of my favorites!
I’ve made this many times! Always delish! Recently, I had a guest who could not eat dairy. 8 oz. of dried pasta worked great. I used the mini penne.
Would this work with frozen spinach and/or carrots?
Yes if it’s what you’ve got on hand you should be just fine :)
i used turkey sausage and chicken stock .This soup was a hit!
Be sure to add the cooked tortellinis and sausages right before eating as to keep these items in their proper forms and not to overcook.
I made this for lunch yesterday and we loved it!!!!! What I especially liked was how quickly it all came together.
I read the recipe wrong and used 6 c of veg broth – not a big change, but something I feel I should disclose. Also, I used Tofurkey Italian Sausage – I used half a package and sliced them up into very small chunks and added them w/the stewed tomatoes. Probably there’s nothing budget-y about using Tofurkey products ($!) but it gave this soup the flavor I think was intended. I was also generous with my basil and oregano.
The soup was absolutely FABULOUS and I’ll definitely be adding this my rotation! Thank you so much!
I made this without sausage and it was still really nice. Fresh veggies and easy to cook. I know I can always add the sausage to bring it up another level.
Great flavor, and pretty too! I used a bit more sausage and pressure cooked the soup. I topped off with grated Parmesan, and had some crusty bread on the side. I’ll be making this one again!
My boyfriend is very indifferent to anything I make. I’ve been cooking for him for the last 7 years and this is probably the most notable recipe in his eyes! He RAVES about this recipe, and he is not a fan of spinach or carrots! Our two daughters love it as well (:
Definitely a favorite in our house.
This is the 3rd soup I’ve tried and I must say, this website is so AWESOME!!! My cooking skills have gone up exponentially by using your recipes! So grateful!!!
The flavor of this soup was amazing! I’ve never made a recipe from BB that I haven’t loved (and repeated). The only change that I made was that I added a can of cannellini beans juice and all. I’m so excited for soup leftovers for dinner tonight! Thanks, Beth, for once again making my tummy and my wallet happy! :)
So delicious! Just absolutely amazing. I used two cups of vegetable broth, two of chicken broth, and two water, but everything else I kept the same. This soup is so tasty and well worth the prep. Thanks for this one.
Omg SO DELICIOUS. Phenomenal recipe. I used chicken broth instead of vegetable broth, and bought stewed tomatoes that were already seasoned with basil and oregano, so that cut a few steps down. My husband and I devoured it! Will be making again and again.
My friend made this a few months ago and I loved it even more than my usual sausage soup recipe. I made it for my family, and everyone loved it! We couldn’t use tortelloni because of a dairy allergy, but we use egg noodles or farfalle. It is incredible!
Absolutely delicious! My 3-year old AND my 1.5-year old gobbled up the carrots, the tomatoes, the sausage, and the pasta (of course)! Definitely keeping this on rotation here at our household!
Could this be done in a crockpot? Cooking while I’m at work is my new M.O.
Another winning recipe from Beth! I’ve been cooking from your blog since ~2010 and you haven’t failed me yet. I made a huge batch of this the other night. Used chicken broth instead of vegetable bc that’s what I had, and it turned out DELICIOUS. Seriously good. It’ll go on our regular winter stew rotation!
I made this in my Instant Pot by browning the sausage and onions together then adding everything else, (but only using two cups of water rather than three) and did the manual setting for one minute. Quick release, and holy moly it was amazing and so so fast! Thanks Beth!
Love it..added some parm to mine..great with crushing bread
This was great! Was worried at first after adding the sausage and veggies that there was way too much broth, but it thickens up quite a bit with the tortellini and spinach!
Thanks for this recipe!
Going to try this today! It is snowing and windy and 18 degrees! Perfect day for soup!
How big is that pot you are using???
5 quart
I loved the tortellini instead of regular pasta! Definitely something I’ll use in the future. This turned out a bit to sweet for my liking, so I might use regular diced tomatoes next time instead of the stewed. And maybe swap the carrots for celery or something? Anyway, this was still really tasty, definitely a keeper.
Made this the other night and it did not disappoint. Instead of stewed tomatoes I used the half-used up can of crushed tomatoes in my fridge and compensated for missing seasoning by adding 0.5tsp of Italian seasoning along with the spices called for in the recipe. I also used homemade turkey stock from our Christmas dinner (Made with Beth’s Instant Pot stock recipe). It was a light but filling dinner for my husband, my 9 month old, and myself, with enough leftovers that the grown ups can take some to work for lunch next week. Will definitely be making this again.
This was AMAZING! One of my fav recipes of yours for sure! Would love more soup recipes.
I made this last night for dinner and there were NO leftovers – that’s how much I, my husband, and my son loved it! Super tasty and very easy. I had a couple of extra stalks of celery leftover from a salad I’d made, so I chopped those up and tossed them in with the carrots :) Thanks for another great recipe!
Sitting here, eating the soup, it’s so good I’m ready to lick by bowel. Thanks!
My family LOVES this soup. It only gets better over time too. Great leftovers even if the tortellini get a little soft.
Do you think it would be fine to use canned carrots instead? Don’t have a peeler, and also looking for ways to speed up a recipe even more. :)
Yes that would definitely work for a shortcut.
It would work in a pinch, but since they’re already cooked they may get very soft. Also, I’d look for a low sodium variety if possible. A better choice would be frozen sliced carrots if you can find them. :) They’re the closest to fresh.
I spent a really long time in the store looking for tortelloni until I realized it’s tortellini haha. Amazing recipe, real winner with myself and SO!
This was so amazing! My family started a barter system for who got the last bowl.
I just made this for dinner and it turned out great. I used a different brand’s Italian sausage and the fennel seed was STRONG, but I have found that to be the case with most Italian sausage. Barely had any leftovers, though. It was a great dish for a chilly evening.
Just made this for dinner and it was delicious! I made a few changes, though- I shredded the carrots instead of slicing them, since I was worried they wouldn’t cook through in the short cooking time, and I also allowed the soup to boil for ~5 minutes before adding the pasta so the veggies could soften more. I used about 1 tsp of an Italian herb blend instead of the dry basil and oregano because that’s what I had on hand, and lastly I roughly chopped up the spinach before adding it to the pot. Overall, it was delicious, though next time I think I’ll just use regular pasta instead of the tortellini.
So good! It was a rainy cold night here up north and this was a perfect way to get warm and nourished :) thank you for another great recipe!!
Omg. This is amazing. FYI, I used fresh basil instead of dried. It really gave it some bang. :)
Delicious!!!
Thank you for this recipe. I made this soup for dinner tonight and it was absolutely delicious. I made the recipe exactly as written and my family lived it. I will definitely be making this again.
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!!! :-)