As everyone in the Northeast has noticed, Spring is taking its time getting here this year. I wanted something to warm up with this weekend, and after poking around in the freezer, googled ‘sweet Italian sausage soup.’ Turns out that that is, indeed, a thing! How convenient. More importantly, though, it’s a very delicious thing. My mom’s (Italian) boyfriend took one bite and went “Now that is Italian,” so… it gets that stamp of approval as well.

It’s never really beautiful at any step in the process, but it is mighty delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian sausage, loose or removed from the casing
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 8 cups water
• 28 ounces diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules (I used ~1 1/2 tablespoons of Better Than Bouillon)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 1/2 cups farfalle pasta (I didn’t have that, used a different shape, no big deal)
• shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)
• some nice bread (optional)

In theory you could use broth instead of water and bouillon, but who doesn’t have some of that stuff kicking around in the back of the cabinet/fridge to get rid of?

In your soup pot, cook the sausage over medium heat until browned, 5-7 minutes.

Remove the cooked sausage from the pot, and pour off excess grease if there is more than a tablespoon or two left behind.

Put the onions in the pot and cook 3 or 4 minutes until nearly tender. Add the garlic and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is tender. Add the water, the tomatoes and the juice from the can, the sugar, Worcestershire sauce, bouillon, salt, herbs, and cooked sausage. After you add the first cup or two of water is a good time to scrape the bottom of the pot with the spoon you’ve been using, as the temperature shock of adding the water will have loosened the browned sausage and onion bits covering the bottom of the pot.

Brown, partly from all the bits that came off the bottom of the pot.

Turn the stove heat up to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the pasta, and cook until the pasta is tender, 10-15 minutes depending on the shape of pasta.

Those tomato chunks might be a bit bigger than yours – we only had a can of whole peeled tomatoes, not diced, so I just chopped them up roughly.

While the pasta cooks, cut some bread, such as ciabatta, into little centimeter cubes and toast in your toaster oven or, carefully, in your full-sized oven.

When the pasta is cooked, serve the soup sprinkled with some parmesan cheese, and the croutons on the side for a bit of crunchy texture.

This smells really good, tastes a bit sweet, and is very filling. Perfect for this Winter that won’t go away!

Sweet Italian Sausage Soup

Slightly adapted from Food.com.

• 1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian sausage, loose or removed from the casing
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 8 cups water
• 28 ounces diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon granules
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 1/2 cups farfalle pasta
• shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)
• some nice bread, such as ciabatta (optional)

In your soup pot, cook the sausage over medium heat until browned, 5-7 minutes. Remove the cooked sausage from the pot, and pour off excess grease if there is more than a tablespoon or two left behind.

Put the onions in the pot and cook 3 or 4 minutes until nearly tender. Add the garlic and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is tender. Add some of the water and scrape the bottom of the pot, then add the rest of the water along with the tomatoes and the juice from the can, the sugar, Worcestershire sauce, bouillon, salt, herbs, and cooked sausage.

Turn the stove heat up to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the pasta, and cook until the pasta is tender, 10-15 minutes depending on the shape of pasta.

While the pasta cooks, cut the bread into centimeter cubes and toast until crunchy.

When the pasta is cooked, serve the soup sprinkled with some parmesan cheese, and the croutons on the side.