Home-made soup! Was there ever a food more universally loved? Soup is warm and comforting. It’s hearty and filling. Soup makes you feel better if you’re under the weather. Life sprang from primordial soup, and it’s still giving us life, even after all these millennia.
When summer closes down, the last of the garden tomatoes have been brought in, there are more cold and stormy days than warm ones, our tastes turn autumnal and we crave nothing more than a bowl of this: tortellini soup with sausage and spinach. Sure, we’ve made other soups and stews, but what we love about this soup is the combination of fresh home-cooked ingredients and store-bought convenience.
Our tortellini soup has a rich, creamy tomato base, and gets packed with cheesy tortellini, Italian sausage and loads of vegetables, including carrots, onions, garlic and spinach. It’s one of our favorite things to make when we want something super easy that can feed us for days.
tortellini Soup Ingredients
The number one thing you need to make any soup ?
The correct answer, my dear Clangers, is of course, homemade stock (there are also two recipes for homemade stock in The Ultimate Dutch Oven Cookbook). We try to keep a few quarts of chicken broth in the freezer for just this kind of thing. But life has a way of getting chaotic, and we didn’t have time to make any this week, so boxed chicken stock it is this time. Luckily, this soup is amazing either way.
The next trick for great tasting soup is using tons of vegetables, particularly onions and carrots. Add celery too, if you like that sort of thing. (We’re not big fans of celery so we leave it out.) Chop everything up in equal-sized pieces so the veggies soften at the same time. It will initially seem like too many vegetables, but I promise you they will cook down perfectly.
Making Tortellini Soup
Start by browning some sausage in a deep, heavy pot. (Use a Dutch Oven if you have one!) You could use pork or chicken, or even vegetarian sausage if you like. Once cooked, remove it to a plate with a slotted spoon, and if the pot looks dry, add a little olive oil. Add the onions and carrots, season them with salt and pepper. Cook them on medium heat until the onions turn soft and translucent. You’re not trying to brown the vegetables, so don’t rush this step.
Then add the garlic, crushed fennel seed (if you’re using it), and the tomato paste. It will only take a few minutes, so let it turn deep red. This step deepens its flavor, rewarding the broth with a rich tomato base.
Add some white wine: nothing fancy, something drinkable. You could also use dry vermouth if you don’t want to uncork a fresh bottle of the good stuff. Let it cook until the the wine has evaporated and the pan is mostly dry. Note: if you don’t want to add alcohol, skip this step, but you could squeeze a little lemon juice into the soup right at the end, once you’ve turned off the heat, to brighten it up.
Stir the flour into the vegetables, and let it cook for a minute. Gradually add in the chicken broth and keep stirring occasionally until it comes to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and let it simmer, stirring every so often and scraping the bottom of the pot to make sure the flour isn’t sticking. Let the soup simmer until the carrots are fully tender.
a quick note about tortellini
Try to find the type of frozen tortellini that take around 12-15 minutes to cook. The quickie 3-minute tortellini tend to get mushy very quickly.
We prefer to cook the tortellini separately from the soup, because the excess starch can make the soup taste a little muted, but it’s not the end of the world if you want to just drop them in and do everything in one pot.
If pre-boiling your tortellini, add them to boiling salted water and cook until al dente or about 1 minute under the package directions. If you want to cook them a little more in advance, once they’re cooked, run them under cold water to stop them cooking, and toss them with a tiny bit of olive oil to keep them from sticking together. Then you can add them to the soup whenever you’re ready for them.
finishing the soup
Once the vegetables are tender, add the milk and room temperature cream cheese, and bring the liquid back to a low simmer, stirring until the cheese melts. This might take a minute or so.
Add back the sausage, and the tortellini and the spinach. Cook the tortellini soup just until the spinach is wilted and the tortellini is hot (or, simmer until the pasta is al dente, if you’re cooking the tortellini in the soup).
Serve it with a grating of parmesan and some good, crusty bread for dunking.
Now you’re ready for autumn.
Easy, Creamy Tortellini Soup with Spinach and Sausage
Ingredients
- 16 oz. fresh or frozen cheese tortellini
- 1 tablespoon olive oil more, as needed
- 1 pound Italian sausage sweet or hot, removed from casing if links
- 2 large yellow onions finely chopped (3 cups)
- 2 large carrots peeled and finely chopped (1/2 cup)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 1 teaspoon fennel seed crushed (optional)
- 6 oz canned tomato paste
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 8 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 1 cup milk
- 4 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 10 oz baby spinach or large leaves, chopped
- Parmesan for serving
Instructions
- **OPTIONAL — If pre-boiling tortellini, bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add tortellini and cook until al dente or about 1 minute under package directions. Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking, and set aside until ready to use.
- Set a large soup pot or Dutch Oven over medium-high heat. Add oil and when shimmering, add the sausage and cook, breaking it up into little pieces. When the sausage is mostly browned, remove it to a plate with a slotted spoon. If there’s a lot of fat in the pot, remove all but 2 tablespoons. If the pan is dry, add a little more olive oil. Add the onion and carrot, season with kosher salt and pepper, and sauté, stirring often, for 7 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
- Add the garlic, crushed fennel seed, and tomato paste; sauté for an additional 3 minutes, stirring often, until the garlic is fragrant and the tomato paste is deep brick red.
- Add wine and let it cook until pan is mostly dry, about 3 minutes. Stir the flour into the vegetables and cook for 1 minute. Gradually add in the broth, stirring to combine. Continue cooking until the mixture comes to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir and scrape the bottom of the pot occasionally to make sure the flour isn't sticking.
- Add the cream and cream cheese, and bring back to a low simmer, stirring until the cheese melts. Add back the sausage, and the tortellini and spinach. Cook just until spinach is wilted and the tortellini are hot (or simmer until al dente, if cooking in the soup).