Tortellini Soup

This is Recipe #2 of the January "Soup Series."  It is one of our family favorites (again) from my Aunt Kathy and it is sooo good and simple.  What I love most about soups/stews is that yes there is a lot of variety and fun you can have with making them, but most of all you use very few dishes, making clean up a cinch.  

I made a few changes in the recipe including the addition of pancetta, using both beef and veggie broth, a jalapeño, and a few other spices to add some more flavor.  Otherwise this recipe is perfect and will feed an army (ok well 4 easily), I made the full batch and have a bunch of leftovers (YAY!)  Enjoy this Just Good Food with a good loaf of bread and some fresh parsley and parmesan to top off the soup!

Recipe:

1 lb of italian pork sausage (spicy or mild)

4 cloves of garlic

3 oz pancetta (chopped bite size)

1/2 cup red wine (better than water obviously)

5 1/2 cups split between beef and veggie broth

A 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes

A 8 oz can of tomato sauce

3 carrots (peeled and chopped bite size)

2 zucchini (sliced and halved)

1 green bell pepper (chopped bite size)

1 jalapeño (optional, tiny pieces)

1 tsp dried basil

1 tbsp oregano

1 tsp red pepper flakes

sprig of fresh basil leaves

S&P

8 oz cheese tortellini

olive oil

parmesan (grated)

fresh parsley (optional)

Directions:

In a large pot, pour in some olive oil and set at medium heat and brown the garlic gloves and add the sausage links and chopped pancetta (remove the casing but don't break apart the sausage just yet).  Once the meat is browned, remove and chop into bite size pieces.  

To the pot, add the broth, wine, tomatoes, carrots, dried basil, oregano, S&P to taste, tomato sauce, and the meat once it's chopped.  Bring this to a boil and let simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes (you want the veggies fairly soft but not mushy).  Drain the fat and stir in the other ingredients (zucchini, jalapeño, green pepper, and tortellini and fresh basil leaves)

Then simmer covered for 20-25 minutes (wait for the noodles to cook and everything to come together).  Don't simmer too long otherwise you will reduce the liquid too much, remove basil leaves when done.  Sprinkle with parmesan, S&P and Serve!