Cheap Eats :: Sausage and Tortellini Soup

I love tortellini and have seen around the cybershpere a few recipes for tortellini soup and I have always been intrigued.
At both Trader Joe's and Winco, I have seen dried tortellini and been very curious about how dried cheese pasta would taste.
Last week, while doing my routine recipe browsing I ran across this recipe. I liked that dried tortellini was used and decided to give this one a go, with some minor changes based on what I had in the house and whatnot. 

And here is what I did:

Sausage and Tortellini Soup 

1a. Boil according to directions in a small saucepan
4 oz of dried tortellini [drain and set aside]  
1b. Brown in soup pot/dutch oven
1 pound sweet Italian turkey sausage [pull it out of the pot and set aside]

2. Saute with a bit of olive oil or butter
1 cup chopped sweet onion [for 5 mins]
1 clove garlic, minced [throw in for the last minute or two]


2. Add, and simmer 30 minutes:
5 cups beef broth (use homemade, canned, or reconstituted bouillon) [I used bouillon because it's more cost effective, we're on a budget here!]
1 14oz can of diced tomatoes [next time I'd used crushed, but that's just me]
8 oz. tomato sauce [Left out, because I forgot it...ha!]
1 cup sliced carrots
1 medium pepper, chopped [I used a healthy pinch of red pepper flake...not the same, but I like a bit of heat.]
½ teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon rosemary (I omit this) I also left this out

3. Add and boil for 1 minute:
½ cup red wine or sherry no booze, too expensive...so I omitted it.
4 oz. dry tortellini, cooked according to package directions
Browned Sausage

The soup was good! I think dried tortellini is pretty good! It's not fresh, by any means...but not a bad inexpensive substitute. Way better than no tortellini at all!! HA!

I served mine with fresh baked bread made with the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day method.

This recipe for bread is my favorite and super simple to have fresh bread whenever you want. Delicious!