Recipes

[ciao_bella]

Hearty Italian Sausage Soup with Spinach (and pasta, if you like) 

• 1 pound of Italian sausage, sweet or hot
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped 
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 15oz can of diced tomatoes, with juice 
• 3 cups of bone broth or chicken broth
• 1 Tablespoon Italian dried seasoning
• 2 cups packed baby spinach, rinsed 
• 1 can Great Northern beans, drained *OPTIONAL but good in the soup
• Serve with some grated parmesan cheese.
•  
• *Optional: cook some small pasta on the side to add in your bowl AFTER the soup is cooked…like ditalini, or small shells, small elbows or even tortellini.  

Cook the sausage in a Dutch oven or stockpot with about a Tablespoon of olive oil.  Break up the sausage into small pieces while cooking..takes about 7 or 8 minutes or so.  Remove the meat to a bowl for adding back in later.

To that same pot, add in the onions, carrots, celery and cook for about 5 minutes until the onions are translucent and carrots and celery are beginning to get cooked.  Then add in the garlic and cook for another minute or two.  

Pour in the tomatoes, broth, Italian seasoning and sausage and beans.  Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes or so.

  Then stir in the spinach until it wilts, then taste and season with salt and pepper to your liking.  

Serve by putting some of the cooked pasta in a bowl, add in the hot soup and top with some good grated parmesan cheese.   Add a side of good crusty Italian bread and there you have it!  

[deepwaterdotter]

This looks delicious, and yes I'll include some pasta.

[cindyNC]

@ciao_bella That looks wonderful.  Why don't you drain the beans? 

[ninjawife]

You didn't indicate when to put in the beans.  Do you put them in with sausage or do you wait and do it with the spinach?

[QVCkitty1]

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@cindyNC wrote:

@ciao_bella That looks wonderful.  Why don't you drain the beans? 

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@cindyNC , Maybe they act as a thickener. In any case the recipe sounds delicious !

[ciao_bella]

@cindyNC   Oops.... I do drain the beans... just forgot to type it in correctly.  I'll edit it now.   thanks for catching that.  

[GingerHead]

Yum! Now that's my kind of recipe.

Hearty and soulful for the Fall with mostly pantry staple ingredients....

[ciao_bella]

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@ninjawife wrote:

You didn't indicate when to put in the beans.  Do you put them in with sausage or do you wait and do it with the spinach?

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Add the beans in with the tomatoes, sausage, broth and seasoning.    Sorry...trying to remember the order in which I do these steps and then type it, sometimes gets forgotten.  

[We rescue cats]

Oh@Ciao_Bella!! Thank you, this looks wonderful!

[JeanLouiseFinch]

Thanks for sharing, @ciao_bella. I think I can tweak it to work for us.