Italian Sausage & Tortellini Soup {Freezer Meal}
My husband begs me to make this soup in the fall. It’s got depth of flavor and interesting textures and is even better as leftovers.
This soup freezes well. Just follow the Freezer Meal directions at the bottom of the recipe.
ht: Christine S for the original recipe that I tweaked
Yield:
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PinIngredients
- 16 oz. mild Italian sausage, crumbled and browned
- 1 tsp. Italian Seasoning
- ½ tsp. dried basil
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper (or more to taste)
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 small jalapeno pepper, minced (or add to the soup whole and you can pull it out later)
- 1 cup sliced carrots
- 1 celery rib, sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 (14 oz. non-marinated) cans quartered artichoke hearts (liquid and all)
- 1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes (liquid and all)
- 1 (28 oz) can tomato sauce
- 2 cans French Onion Soup
- 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth (I used 1 box)
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 package frozen cheese multi-colored tortellini (I used Trader Joe’s tortellini)
Instructions
- In a large stock pot over medium high heat, brown Italian sausage until cooked through. Add seasonings to the sausage. Set aside.
- Over medium high heat, saute onion, carrots, celery, and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes. Season lightly with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Add cooked sausage, artichoke hearts, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, French Onion Soup, broth, corn, and bay leaves to the pot and stir to combine. Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes.
- Add tortellini and cook according to package directions just a few minutes before serving.
- Remove bay leaves and serve with Parmesan cheese on top.
Notes
Freezer Meal Instructions:
To Freeze: Stop cooking the soup before adding tortellini. Completely cool the soup and place in a freezer bag or container. Squeeze out all air, seal tightly, and freeze. Place bag of frozen tortellini next to frozen soup to keep the meal together.
To Prepare: To reheat, thaw soup in the fridge but do not thaw the tortellini. In a stock pot, bring soup to a simmer on the stove over medium-high heat. Add tortellini and cook until done according to package directions. Serve as directed.
Hi! For this recipe I bought two cans of Campbell’s French Onion Condensed Soup. Each can is 10.5 oz each.
Should I mix each condensed French Onion Soup can with two cups of water to get the four cups liquid you said would be a substitute for it (you said sub would be 4 cups chicken broth with 1 diced onion)?
I have your cookbook in kindle format and was shocked to find out just now the recipe by the same name wasn’t the same as on this website. Makes me nervous because if I had known I would have followed the cookbook but it’s too late now, I bought ingredients according to this site’s recipe since I didn’t know how to print out of a kindle page but could out of your website and I thought the two recipes were exactly the same.
My freezer cooking party is tomorrow – my first, and inspired by your book – but a timely answer would be appreciated, thanks!
Hi LK. I’m so very sorry that I didn’t see your question sooner! You do not need to add water to the condensed soup. Sorry for the confusion. I hope you figured it out for the party.
This sounds awesome! Just wondering though…my girlfriend is on weight watchers. Is there any nutritional information on this? So I can calculate her points
Sorry, I don’t have that but I know there are several apps or websites that you can plug it into to find out.
For the French onion soup, by 2 cans – do you mean 15oz cans? Ready-to-eat soup or condensed? Thanks for helping / I’m looking forward to making this.
Yes–two 15 oz cans.
I should retract my last question – lol – just realizing it only simmers for 15-20 minutes – super quick! I could probably muster up the time for this one. 😉
Ha, ha. No problem. Although your idea sounds like one I’d like to come home to after a long day…just add tortellini and eat. Nice.
These recipes are great! So glad I stumbled upon them! Do you think making this recipe in the slow cooker would work alright? Or would the ingredients come out to mushy? I was thinking maybe throwing everything in the slow cooker, except the tortellini, and then adding it for the last 30-60 minutes. I just wonder about the other ingredients, or if you’ve ever tested it/made any revisions to accommodate a slow cooker! 🙂 Thanks!
Ok. I don’t do artichoke, at least I don’t think I do… How much will it effect the taste if I leave it out?
I think it will be ok if you leave it out. But, really, I don’t think you’ll notice them if you use them. They melt right in and are awesome!
If using this for a freezer club – do you supply the tortellini or does the family add that to their shopping list the week they’d plan on defrosting and using the soup?
We did actually supply a small baggie of tortellini for each family since it’s integral to the dish.
This soup was fabulous!! My kids loved it as well! Thank you for this recipe!
Thanks for letting me know. We always love it, but it’s nice to hear it turned out well for you too!
Does the freezing affect the integrity of the pasta?
I love your posts!
Hi Alicia,
I don’t freeze this soup with the cooked tortellini in it. I just make it without, and then add the tortellini when I’m ready to eat it. Thanks for reading!
Rachel
I think it adds nice flavor, but I make it a lot without it and it’s great. Every jalepeno is different, so some are more spicy than others. You could try just throwing in part of one?
Hi There
Would like to try this for my hubby,but with a whole jalapeño thrown in, does it make it really spicy or just add a nice flavor tnx.
This is SO GOOD! I’m only cooking for 2 people, so instead of doubling the recipe to cook 1 batch and freeze 1 batch, I made 1 batch and split THAT in half. We ate half of it lastnight and got about 4-5 bowls…and I froze the second half (pasta separate). I had mushrooms in the fridge, so I threw them in and it was great! The jalepeno I used added a moderate amount of heat, but I like that. Thank you.
★★★★★
Woo hoo! Love hearing that. Sounds like you cook like I do…throwing in whatever is left in the fridge. Smart strategy!