Sausage and Tortellini Soup with Spinach Recipe

Rare is the home cook who has time to make homemade pasta and chicken stock for this otherwise simple soup. We keep it quick and easy to assemble with the help of fresh, store-­bought tortellini and canned chicken broth, and we are able to bolster the flavor of the broth by sauteing the onion and garlic in the rendered sausage fat. Stirring in baby spinach at the end adds color and just the right earthy flavor to round out the recipe.

Sausage and Tortellini Soup with Spinach – Cooking

Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Cook sausages, rolling occasionally, until browned all over, about 10 minutes. Transfer to paper towel-lined plate and pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from pot.

Cook onion in sausage fat over medium heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in broth and bay leaf, scraping up any browned bits, and bring to boil.

Cut sausage into ½-inch rounds and add to pot. Stir in tortellini and simmer over medium heat until pasta is tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in spinach and cook until just wilted, about 1 minute. Discard bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.

Sausage and Tortellini Soup with Spinach – Pasta

When shopping for tortellini, you’ll likely find three options available at your local supermarket: dried, frozen, and fresh. The dried tortellini, usually found in the spaghetti aisle, is unimpressive, with a stale and lifeless flavor. We don’t recommend it. The frozen variety is a bit better; once cooked, these tortellini are more moist than the dried. But fresh tortellini, available in plastic packages in the deli section, is head-and-shoulders better than either of the other two. It has a clean flavor and fine texture that is about as close as you can get to homemade pasta.

Sausage and Tortellini Soup with Spinach – Ingredients