This Sausage Tortellini Soup is a tomato-based soup loaded with vegetables, Italian sausage and cheese tortellini. It’s the perfect cold weather soup and freezer friendly!
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This Sausage Tortellini Soup is the ultimate comfort food!
It’s big on flavor, thick and chunky, loaded with vegetables and tender cheese tortellini. Just don’t forget the crusty bread! (Or make a loaf of Cheesy Garlic Bread for Cheddar Bay Biscuits for dunking).
What we love about this Sausage Tortellini Soup:
- It’s hearty and filling — it really is a meal in one pot!
- It’s big on flavor – thanks to Italian sausage.
- It’s a well-rounded meal — with carbs, protein and veggies all in one pot.
- It’s made in one pot, which means less to scrub!
You can even make a big batch and stick some in the freezer — just leave out the tortellini until you’re serving it.
Ingredients Needed:
- Italian sausage: you can use mild or spicy sausage here depending on your tastes! Italian turkey sausage also works well.
- Carrots, onion, celery: a classic mirepoix which is the base for many soup recipes. I don’t recommend substituting any of these ingredients unless you have to!
- Italian seasoning, garlic, salt: I kept my seasonings simple because the sausage adds so much flavor! Feel free to add or experiment as you like.
- Chicken broth: I always start with low sodium chicken broth and add salt as needed. If you start with salted broth, you may not need to add as much salt.
- Diced tomatoes and tomato sauce: Diced tomatoes add texture but you can swap them for crushed tomatoes if you prefer. Choose any marinara or tomato sauce that you enjoy — it will thicken the soup slightly and add lots of tomato flavor!
- Cheese tortellini: fresh or frozen works just fine here! You could substitute with another cheese-filled pasta if you prefer.
How to make Sausage Tortellini Soup:
This soup is easily made in one pot! Here is a brief overview with step by step photos. Find the complete recipe down in the recipe card.
Start by cooking the Italian sausage to brown it — don’t drain the fat since this will help to cook the veggies!
Add the vegetables and cook until crisp-tender, then stir in the garlic and seasonings to toast.
Add the liquids and bring to a simmer, cooking vegetables until tender.
Stir in tortellini and cook just until al dente.
Tips and Tricks for Making this Sausage Tortellini Soup:
- Hot Italian sausage can be very spicy, so be sure to use mild if you prefer a milder flavor. I didn’t add a lot of extra spices to the soup because the sausage gives so much flavor.
- You can use fresh or frozen tortellini to make this soup. I use fresh, so just take into account the required cook time for the pasta when making your soup. Frozen tortellini may cool down your soup and take longer to come back up to a simmer.
- If you have a leftover Parmesan rind, feel free to throw that in the soup as it simmers for some incredible flavor!
- You can prep this soup ahead by chopping all of your vegetables. You can also cook the soup right through up until the point where you add the pasta, then cool and refrigerate and simply reheat and add the pasta before serving.
How to freeze this soup:
This soup can definitely be frozen! Keep in mind that pasta gets soft after being frozen, so if that’s not your thing then you may want to leave the pasta out until you’re ready to serve.
To freeze, simply cool to room temperature, then place in a large freezer bag or freezer container. I prefer to use freezer bags because they can be frozen flat and thaw out quickly in some lukewarm water.
Variations on this Sausage Tortellini Soup:
- To make this Sausage Tortellini Soup dairy-free, omit the cheese tortellini and substitute regular pasta, and be sure to double check all of your ingredients.
- To make this soup gluten-free, omit the pasta and substitute gluten-free pasta or gluten-free tortellini if available.
- You can certainly add more veggies or swap mine out for the ones your family prefers: peppers, mushrooms, or zucchini would also be great in here!
- To make this soup even leaner, choose Italian turkey sausage instead of regular pork sausage.
The BEST Sausage Tortellini Soup
written by Ashley Fehr
Ingredients
- 1 lb Italian sausage mild or spicy (no casings)
- 3 large carrots peeled and diced
- 1 onion finely diced
- 1 rib celery finely chopped
- 1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 798 ml can diced tomatoes (28oz)
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 250 grams fresh cheese tortellini about 3 cups
Instructions
- Add Italian sausage to a large soup pot and cook over medium-high heat until browned. Drain any excess fat.
- Add carrots, onion and celery. Cook and stir until onion has softened.
- Add Italian seasoning, garlic and salt and cook 1 minute.
- Add broth, tomatoes and tomato sauce and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes, until carrots are almost tender.
- Stir in tortellini. Cover and simmer for 5-6 minutes until tender. Serve.
Nutrition Information
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Lori says
This soup was delicious! It is also easy to make and I have filed it in my “favorites”. 🙂 I did add more broth than stated in the recipe to make it a little bit soupier and so it would go farther because it is quite hearty. Other than that, I wouldn’t change anything. Thank you. 🙂
Brett says
Okay. I just sat down to a bowl of this soup. I’m literally eating it as I type. I followed the directions to a “T” except for one thing. I added a thinly sliced single jalapeno to the recipe because we like spicy in this house. It is sublime. It has everything you could want in a January comfort soup. It’s hearty, it’s easy to make, and it’s easy to make it your own however you might like. The single jalapeno I added didn’t seem to affect the soup in any negative way. Rather, it added to the overall flavor profile. The recipe is perfect as is but its so customizable that I can see tweaking this thing ad-infinitum. Enjoy!
The Recipe Rebel says
So glad you enjoyed it, Brett.
Dennis says
Used a 28 oz can of Rotel instead of tomatoes, the only change I made. Next time will use potatoes instead of the Tortellini and peppers instead of carrots. As written this is a good soup that will be in our rotation
Kimberley Colborne says
I just made this soup and I wouldn’t change a thing it is so delicious. Thank you for the recipe.
Emily says
Delicious!! I doubled the sausage, added portobello mushrooms cause I had some in the fridge. I added cream cheese before the pasta, which helped cut the acidity for my
Husband. I tried it before I added the cream cheese and it had wonderful flavor! Husband approved, he gobbled it down!!
Stephen says
You can also use a little baking soda for the same acid cutting property that’s what I do in our red sauces!!
Sonya says
Absolutely delicious!!!😋
Mickey says
This was so good!
Zach says
Loved it, I doubled the ravioli just because the 250g pack was 5$ and a 500g pack was 6$ and it was fine. I didn’t drain the fat either because it was in my Dutch oven and I didn’t feel like it, turned out fine. Also you can save this recipe without subscribing by clicking print and then saving as a PDF.
The Recipe Rebel says
So glad to hear, Zach! Thank you!
Lynn says
Wow! This soup is deeee-licious! Restaurant quality. So easy to make but the flavours are perfect. It could also be made with small shell pasta if someone doesn’t care for tortellini. So comforting on a chilly day. Definitely a keeper!
The Recipe Rebel says
Hi Lynn! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you for this kind review!
Sondra Slattery says
Made it just as the recipe said except with beef broth. Absolutely delicious and my guys all loved it.
The Recipe Rebel says
So happy to hear Sondra! Thank you!
Carol Kunberger says
I added a package of taco mix and a packet of water and it turned out wonderful. Husband loved it…. Yeah!
The Recipe Rebel says
Hi Carol! So glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you for this kind review!