Recipe | Tomato-based spinach tortellini soup

I raved about the tortellini soup that I’ve been making a few times recently and I thought I would post my tweak from the original recipe that I found on “The Modern Proper”.

What really makes this tortellini stand out, IMHO, is the creamy tomato base.

We lightened up the recipe by using chicken (instead of pork) sausage and I almost always substitute half & half for cream these days (without any loss in flavor that I can tell).

I also pack in veggies when I can, so I tend to use spinach tortellini instead of regular cheese tortellini (but that’s your choice!). This soup can be tweaked to your liking (and even be made vegetarian by omitting the meat, although I do think that it gives it extra flavor and texture).

Anyway, without further I do, my take on the tomato-based tortellini soup.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 lbs chicken sausage, ground
1 onion, minced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 quart vegetable stock
1 (14 oz can) crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp salt
10 oz fresh spinach
10 oz spinach tortellini, fresh
1 cup half & half
¼ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

Heat the olive oil in a large pot (I use my Dutch oven for everything these days!) and add the sausage. Break up and brown the sausage. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes.

Add the vegetable stock, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste and whisk everything together.

Bring to a boil and  simmer for 15 minutes. Then add the spinach, tortellini and season with salt.

Add the half and half and then simmer for 5 minutes until the spinach is wilted and the pasta is cooked through.

Season with red pepper flakes if desired and serve hot!