Recipe: Tortellini Soup

Last Friday evening the five first grade teachers from my school had a fun social evening at the home of KB.  We truly like each other as PEOPLE and FRIENDS, and work together as if with one brain. I am SOOOOOO lucky to have such an incredible, brilliant, caring group of women to teach with! We had a great time talking about school, planning, gossiping a bit, discussing life and death... and of course, EATING! KB made a delicious Tortellini Soup, and she shared the recipe with me. I know that Mr. Mamie is going to LOVE this!

Here's the recipe (whick KB got from her mom), with a couple of very slight modifications.

Tortellini Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil 
• 1 pound ground Italian sausage
• 1/4 cup diced onions
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 - 1 cup sliced carrots (depending on how carroty you like things)
• 1 small to medium zucchini, sliced thinly
• 1/2 cup diced green pepper
• 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
• 8 ounces tomato sauce
• 30 ounces (2 cans) beef broth
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon basil
• 1 package refrigerated cheese-filled tortellini*
• Shredded/grated Parmesan cheese, for topping
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  In a soup pot, saute onion in olive oil until it begins to soften. Add ground sausage and garlic; cook until sausage is browned.
2. Once the sausage is cooked, add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef broth, water, and carrots to soup pot.  Bring to a full boil, then continue at low boil for 20 minutes.
3. Add the tortellini, diced green pepper, zucchini, oregano, and basil. Cook on low for 20 minutes.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste, top each bowl with shredded Parmesan, and serve.

 *Prepared tortellini comes in various sizes/flavors.  I purchased a frozen 19 ounce bag of three-cheese filled tortellini at my local market for a little over $3.00. This is a lot of tortellini, so depending on how things look when I start adding it in, I may only use 1/2 the bag (9.5 ounces).

Enjoy!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)