Spicy Tortellini Soup

Did Lynyrd Skynyrd get tired of people yelling out … “Free Bird“?

Does Tony Bennett ever think … for crying out loud people, I actually sing songs other than “I Left My Heart in San Francisco“?

This is my families most requested soup … to the point I sometimes say, “Sorry, I’m making something else tonight”. And the most humbling thing … it’s not a Poppy original (and I am very proud of my humility)! I found this years ago on stltoday.com, they featured this soup from the Café Aroma in Edwardsville, Illinois. This is Poppy’s version, slightly modified from the original.

Difficulty: Falling off a log!

Ingredients: 

• Chicken broth (6 cups) 48 ounces
• 1 lb. “hot” breakfast sausage (the hot sausage provides the heat for the soup)
• 1 medium onion
• 1 poblano pepper
• 1 medium yellow squash
• 1 medium zucchini squash
• 2 cans diced tomatoes (I use the Hunt’s version with red pepper)
• 1 package of frozen cheese tortellini
• Heaping tablespoon of minced garlic
• teaspoon of italian spices
• 3 heaping tablespoons of grated parmesan
• coarse ground pepper to taste

Start heating 6 cups of chicken broth in a stock pot. I cook the cheese tortellini right in the broth.

Dice a medium onion and poblano pepper (use green pepper if you can’t get a poblano) and sauté over low/med heat for 7-8 minutes. At that point add the sausage and crank the heat up to medium. I carve off 2 patties and use the rest … that’s my nod to being healthy and those 2 patties will be breakfast for Tate the next time he spends the night with us.

While the sausage, onion and pepper are cooking (and adding a wonderful smell to your kitchen), quarter the yellow and zucchini squash lengthwise then chop into ¼ inch slices.

When the sausage has started to brown add the squashes. Keep cooking until the sausage is thoroughly cooked, the squash has started to soften, then add the garlic.

At some point the broth will have started boiling … add the frozen tortellini and let it cook until it floats, add the diced tomatoes and their juice.

Drain the meat/veggie mixture and add to the broth/tortellini. Add the grated parmesan, italian spices and coarse ground pepper … let simmer for 5 minutes.

Voila!