This is my new favorite easy family dinner. The sausage is spicy, the frozen cheese tortellini gives that deep aged cheesy saltiness, the spinach, carrots, cabbage and chicken stock make it nutritious. We all licked our bowls and fought for leftovers the next day – Emma even opted to take it in her school lunch.
It came together in about 20 minutes start to finish, so it is the perfect option to throw together on the nights when you’re stopping by the store on your way home and still want to have dinner ready at a reasonable time. I came across the original recipe on Gimmesomeoven but made a couple of customizations. Mike isn’t an Italian sausage fan (the fennel seeds…), so I swapped the Italian sausage links for bratwursts (which are sausage without the seasonings). I added my own Italian dried seasonings in to add back the spicy flavor. I can’t get over how delicious this was.
After a very lazy summer in the kitchen, we’ve been making an effort to get back to family dinners during the week. While the weather is still catching up and cooling down, this has already been in our rotation.
I put some in the freezer in soup to-go containers to get out for my lunches at home – which is usually my downfall. Like a typical mom, I prepare lunches for everyone else in the morning and usually create my own lunch out of scraps of nothing like slices of cheese and an apple. So, this past month I’ve been sneaking a couple of single servings (in these To-Go Containers) into the freezer for myself to get out during busy days.
Sausage & Tortellini Soup
4 bratwursts
2 teaspoons of dry Italian seasoning
pinch of red pepper flakes
1/4 onion, small dice
6 carrots, small dice
1 cup of mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons of flour
6 cups of chicken stock
1/4 head of cabbage; shredded
4 cups of spinach
1/2 bag of frozen cheese tortellini
1/4 cup of cream
Sea Salt (to taste)
Remove brats from casings and brown in a large pot, breaking with the spoon as it cooks. Add onion, carrots and mushrooms and continue to cook. Add the dry seasoning and flour and stir in to soak up all of the fat from the sausage. Cook for a couple of minutes until all of the flour is mixed in. Add chicken stock and stir until the chicken stock loosens the flour to thicken.
Simmer for about 5 minutes on medium low until bubbling.
Add cabbage, spinach (stems removed) and tortellini.
Add cream and season with salt to taste. Let cook for about 5-10 more minutes on low until the tortellini is warmed through.