Tortellini and sausage soup

I was in the mood to make some soup Saturday. At first I wasn’t sure what I was going to make, but I had a big pot of stock on the stove, made with a couple bones from pork roasts from the freezer. the bones were simmering with some onion flakes, bay leaves and adobo seasoning.

When I went to the store, I saw some imported Italian pesto sauce, and that reminded me of the tortellini soup my former housemate used to make. I bought a package of frozen cheese tortellini, and other things for dinner. After the stock simmered for about three hours, I started on the soup. My neighbor raved about this. Here’s how I put this together.

Olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 turnip, chopped

1 large carrot, chopped

1 very ripe cucumber, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

1 jalapeño, chopped

1 thin red pepper, chopped

8 basil leaves, torn

1 gallon of stock (chicken broth is ok)

8 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 2 inch rind from Italian Parmesan cheese

1/2 lb. Italian sausage, browned, and broken up

6-1/2 oz. jar of imported Italian pesto sauce

1 lb. cheese tortellini

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Preparation

This soup doesn’t need a lot of actual kitchen work, just time on the stove. If possible, make your own stock for this, but four quarts of unsalted chicken stock will work fine. When your stock is ready, start on the soup. 

Heat a large soup pot, and add enough olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the chopped onion, turnip, carrot, cucumber, tomato, jalapeño, and red pepper. Let that gently sweat down for about ten minutes, until everything has softened a bit. Add the basil leaves and the garlic. Stir and let that cook another five minutes.

Add the stock, and bring that to a boil. Reduce the heat so it just gently simmers when covered. Let that simmer for two hours. Break up and brown the Italian sausage. Add that to the soup. Let it gently simmer for a half hour. Stir in the jar of pesto sauce, and let that simmer for a half hour. Finally, add the pound of tortellini, bring the soup to a boil, and simmer it for about fifteen minutes, and you are ready to serve.

Serving

I served my tortellini soup, sprinkled with grated Italian Parmesan cheese, with Roman style broiled pork chops and Parmesan sausage bread. Any medium bodied Italian red is good.