- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 6 ounces bulk Italian sausage (sweet or hot, as you prefer)
- 2 garlic cloves sliced thin
- 1 small shallot, minced
- pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
- ½ cup frozen spinach
- ½ cup frozen peas
- 6 ounces frozen cheese tortellini
Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan (I use my All-Clad 3-quart sauté pan). If your sausage is in casings, remove and discard casings. Break the sausage into pieces. Cook over medium-high heat (I use the 7 setting) until lightly browned, breaking it up as you go. Remove sausage to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Leave a tablespoon or so of fat in the pan. Add garlic and sauté for a minute. Add shallot and sauté 2 minutes. Return sausage and stir to combine. Add white wine and raise heat to high. Bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Add broth and return to the boil. Add tomatoes. Reduce heat to medium-low to simmer. Let cook for 10 minutes. Taste and add salt or pepper as needed. Add spinach, peas, and tortellini. Cook for five minutes. Serve in large bowls with crusty bread.
You can skew this soup in a slightly different direction by upping the tomato aspects. After you've sautéd the shallot for a minute and a half, add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste and sauté to a minute. Next, reduce the chicken broth to two cups. Next, add the tomatoes with their juice instead of draining them. Finally, season to taste with basil (fresh is better but dried works).
Since I decided at the last minute to go the tomato route, we drank a 2020 Marchese Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva instead of the white wine on which I had planned. It's a little heavy for a soup, but it worked reasonably well. On its own merits, it's a deep ruby color. Cherry, raspberry, and plum fruit associations. Well integrated oak provides vanilla, leather, and tobacco note. Excellent.
