Italian sausage and tortellini soup is one of my all time favorite soups that I make. This soup is made with a broth that is full of garlic for warmth and just a touch of heavy cream for sweetness that compliments the sausage and vegetables in the soup. It is very simple and very delicious!
I love this Italian sausage and tortellini soup recipe for when the weather starts to get cooler and temps begins to fluctuate from hot to cold because mother nature is in transition. When this happens, my body starts to feel run down and I need to pay extra attention to what I eat.
Soups, for me, are the miracle dish in making me feel better when my body is dragging. To me homemade soup is warm and comforting, mood lifting and an energy booster. This is why I make a pot of soup almost every week.
This tortellini soup is one that is definitely on the top of the list for soups on rotation in our house. It's easy, delicious and everyone loves it.
The ingredients you will need for this Italian sausage and tortellini soup are:
- Cheese tortellini
- Italian sausage (sweet or mild)
- Carrots
- Garlic
- Chicken stock
- Cream
- Garlic
- Onion
- Potatoes
- Italian oregano
- Red pepper flakes
You may already have many of these ingredients already in your pantry. You can freeze tortellini and sausage so if you plan ahead and stock up on those items, this soup can be a really fast last minute meal when you don't know what to make.
Making this sausage and tortellini soup is very easy and anyone can do it. When you taste it it will taste like it took all day to make this but it only takes 30 minutes.
Here are the steps to making this sausage and tortellini soup:
First, remove the casings from your Italian sausage.
To do this, you are going to cut a line down the middle of your sausage and this will split the casing around the sausage. Once this casing is split you can easily pull the whole casing off in one go.
The next thing you are going to do is brown your sausage.
You want to brown your sausage first so that it gets nice and browned (this adds lots of flavor). This allows us to cook the vegetables in the juices from the sausage giving those veggies lots of extra flavor.
Now you add your aromatic veggies (carrots, onion and garlic) along with the spices.
This step will cook down those aromatic vegetables and spices so that when you add your broth in the next step, they will flavor it really well.
Add your broth and potatoes.
You are almost done when you get to this point. You want to let the potatoes and aromatic veggies cook in the broth for a little bit or until the potatoes are tender.
The last step is adding in your cooked tortellini and cream.
The last step does not really require any additional cooking time. Your tortellini is already cooked (see notes below for why we cook this separately) and your cream will heat up fast once it hits the soup. In this last step you want to taste for seasoning and add any extra salt to taste.
You may have read in that last step that you are going to cook your tortellini separately. I do this will all soups that have pasta to preserve the structure of the pasta and to make sure the pasta does not get mushy.
How to make your tortellini on the side for this soup:
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
- Salt the water well once it is boiling.
- Add your tortellini and cook according to the manufacturers instructions.
- When it is ready, remove from the stove, strain and add back to to the pot.
- Drizzle your tortellini liberally with olive oil and gently mix it all around making sure to coat all of the tortellini.
- Set aside until you are ready to assemble your bowls of soup.
When you cook your pasta on the side, you are able to keep your pasta nice and al dente and you don't have to worry about the pasta drinking up all of the soup's broth if you are saving some for leftovers.
In my opinion, all soups should be made with leftovers in mind because they taste amazing the next day.
I don't just make this during the colder months. This soup is on rotation all year at our house because it so so easy and it makes great leftovers. If you want to make this for leftovers make sure you follow the notes at the bottom of the recipe for the best way to make the tortellini portion for leftovers.
This soup is definitely a great one to keep in your rotation all year and one that everyone will love.
Other Soup Ideas:
- Vegetable Soup With Cabbage
- Coconut Curry Vegetable Soup
- Homemade Tomato Soup
- Carrot and Acorn Squash Soup
- Italian Minestrone
Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup
Ingredients
- 2 pints of unsalted chicken broth I used homemade but you can buy really good stock at the store. Just don't buy the really cheap stuff
- 1 cup of heavy cream
- 5 medium carrots coarsely diced or sliced all the same size.
- 5 sweet Italian sausage links casings removed
- 5 red potatoes or new potatoes quartered all the same size
- 2 small packages of cheese tortellini or 1 large package your favorite brand
- 4 cloves of garlic diced
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 tbsp of olive oil plus more for tortellini
- 1 tbsp Salt plus more to taste
- 1 tsp of dried oregano
- ⅛ tsp red pepper flakes
Instructions
- In a large soup pot over medium heat add your olive oil.
- When your oil is hot, go ahead and add your sausages (with the casings removed ) into the pot and break it up into small pieces. Cook until fully browned.
- Next add your diced carrots, onions, garlic, red pepper flakes and oregano and cook for about 3-4 minutes.
- Add a pinch of salt and cook for another minute.
- Now add your chicken broth.potatoes and salt and stir well.
- Reduce heat to a simmer on medium low heat. Keep cooking your soup until the potatoes are fully cooked, about 10-15 minutes.
- While your potatoes are cooking, grab a medium pot and fill with water for your tortellini. Bring to a boil and cook your tortellini according to the instructions on the package usually 3-4 minutes.
- Drain your tortellini and add it back to its pot (move it off the heat and add a good drizzle of olive oil and gently mix to prevent them from sticking.) Set aside. Note: You want to keep your pasta separate from your soup until you are ready to serve it or else your pasta will drink up all your broth and become mushy.
- Back to the soup, once the potatoes are ready (this is when you can pierce them with a fork) you can go ahead and add your heavy cream to the soup and stir well. Taste for seasoning at this point and see if it needs salt or pepper.
To assemble
- Add a large ladle of tortellini to each bowl and then ladle in the soup over top making sure to get some of all the yummy ingredients into each bowl.
- Enjoy!
Sarah says
Our new favorite soup! This is a keeper recipe!