I’d like to share a recipe that makes a delicious, hearty soup! I needed to find an alternate soup to make for our Yard Sale/Bake Sale next weekend (Sept. 11 & 12). If you are local, come join us at the Boalsburg Fire Hall Friday (9-2) and Saturday (9-1).
In the past we had offered a Chicken Corn Noodle Soup and it just didn’t seem as popular as in the past. So, I decided to try this Italian Sausage Soup with Tortellini instead. This recipe is from https://allrecipes.com.
This first batch was just for us to see if it would even work. I’ll triple the recipe if the tortellini holds together. I needed something that could simmer for 3-4 hours and still look like tortellini. Usually, noodles worked well, but I knew fresh tortellini just got HUGE and then fell apart if simmered too long. I had corkscrew pasta ready, but I thought I’d try dried tortellini first.
Here is the recipe:
We started with 1-pound of sweet Italian sausage…loose like a package of hamburger. Bert cooked it and drained it in a bowl lined with paper towels. (Sorry…I didn’t catch a picture of the frying pan!)
While Bert was cooking, I chopped up celery, carrots and onions. We decided to skip the zucchini. We didn’t think it would be sturdy enough to simmer for 3-4 hours.
I measured out the minced garlic, basil, parsley and oregano:
I got the Beef Broth and cooked tomatoes out of the pantry:
Bert donated a bottle of red wine (we needed 1/2 cup!). If this works, we’ll save the rest for the triple batch of soup next week (at least another cup and a half!)
This all got assembled in our 5-quart pan and was brought to a boil.
When the vegetables were soft, we dumped in an 8-oz bag of dried tortellini.
Once stirred up, we let it simmer for another 15 minutes or so. Wow…it made a huge pile of soup!
This soup needed no additional seasoning, but it could have used more liquid…or less tortellini. It really sucked up the juice.
Finally, we let the soup simmer for several hours, just like it will at the Bake sale. It still tasted great. The best thing…the tortellini held together! I’ll take an extra box of broth to add if necessary after simmering for 2-3 hours, just in case!
We now have a great recipe to make soup for a crowd…or at least a hearty soup for us this winter! Enjoy!
If you have comments or questions, please email me directly at maryjkisner@gmail.com.