Katie Woosley

Winter temperatures have finally arrived in NC and even though I don’t do great with the cold, I love everything that comes with it. Bring on the cozy sweaters, hot lattes, and, most importantly the soup! I have been making a lot of soup recently, but this Italian Sausage and Pasta Soup has been my absolute favorite. I’ve made it 3 times in the past month. It is simple, yet flavorful, and is packed with lots of veggies! The soup is originally made with Italian sausage, which is what I used the first time and it was delicious! The second time I made it I decided to try Italian-seasoned turkey sausage for a healthier option. Turkey sausage has much less sodium and saturated fat than Italian sausage while still maintaining the same amount of protein content. The soup tasted almost the same with the turkey sausage and I will be using it from now on! This recipe, like most of the recipes I share, works great as meal prep. The noodles do soak up the broth and get softer throughout the week. I don’t mind this and just keep some chicken broth on hand to thin each serving out as needed. If you prefer the pasta to stay more firm, you can always boil the pasta separately and add it to each serving the day of. I did this the first time I made it and it worked perfectly! Just make sure to reduce the amount of chicken broth you use in the soup by about a cup. If you give this soup a try let me know how you like it! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Italian Sausage and Pasta Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Italian turkey sausage
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 1 ½ tsp Italian seasoning
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• 1 15oz can diced tomatoes (no salt added)
• 6 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1 ½ cups seashell pasta
• 5 oz of spinach
• Grated parmesan

Directions:

• Brown the sausage over medium heat. When it is almost
  brown add onion, carrots, celery, and bell pepper. Sauté
  until sausage is fully cooked. Don’t drain the grease…you want all that flavor!
• Add garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Cook for another
  1-2 minutes.
• Add chicken broth and tomatoes and bring to a boil.
• Once boiling, add in pasta and cook for 7 minutes.
• Add spinach and cook for about 1 minute until wilted. Add
  additional salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Notes:

Depending on how thin you like your soup you can add more or less chicken broth. I always like to keep some on hand to thin out my leftover soup as the pasta soaks up some of the broth.

• If you would like, you can cook the pasta separately and add to each serving to prevent it from getting soft. If you do this, only use 5 cups of chicken broth.
• Depending on how thin you like your soup you can add more or less chicken broth.
• I always like to keep chicken broth on hand to thin out my leftover soup as the pasta soaks up some of the broth.
• You can use regular Italian sausage if you prefer, but I would not add any salt until tasting. I didn’t need to add any salt when I used it.