A hearty Italian meal in a soup.
You will need some good Italian sausages for this soup. Remove the casings from 2-3 sausages and fry the meat, breaking it into small pieces as it cooks. Add a diced onion, 2 chopped carrots and 2 chopped stems of celery and continue to cook until the onion is soft. Add 1 litre (1 quart) of chicken stock and 3 cups of water and bring to the boil. Add a package of parmesan-filled tortellini (Barilla makes some dried ones that are good) and simmer for 10 minutes. Add a cup of thawed frozen peas and continue to cook for 1-2 minutes or until the tortellini are cooked. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. To serve, place 10-20 baby spinach leaves and 6-10 fresh chopped basil leaves in each serving bowl and ladle the soup over them.
michelle picker cooks 