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.
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.