Creamy Tortellini Sausage Soup
A delicious creamy tortellini sausage soup made in just 30 minutes! Loaded with sausage, veggies, and tortellini in a creamy, tomato-based broth!
This soup is the epitome of comfort food in a bowl.
It is rich and creamy and comes together fast for a perfect weeknight meal.
Making Tortellini Soup
The base of this soup starts with:
- ground sausage
- onions + carrots + celery + garlic
- basil + oregano + thyme
- salt + pepper
Life lesson #43: when you start with good, solid, flavorful ingredients, it’s a sure fire way for the finished soup to taste amazing! 😉
How to Make a Creamy Soup
Once the veggies and sausage cook for a bit, there are two steps to creating the creamy, rich, tomato-based broth.
- tomato sauce and broth are added and simmer with the veggies and sausage for a couple minutes
- milk and a bit of flour are blended and added to the soup for richness and creaminess
The soup simmers for several minutes, which cooks the flour in the milk mixture, so there’s no noticeable flour taste at all!
Instead, you get a delicious creaminess in the soup without copious amounts of heavy cream.
Spinach and Tortellini
The last step is to add the cheese tortellini and chopped fresh spinach.
Both of these ingredients need a very short cooking time!
The best tortellini for this soup is cheese tortellini found in the refrigerated section. It cooks in less than three minutes. So don’t walk away and do a bucket list life adventure once you add the tortellini.
Stay close so the tortellini doesn’t overcook or else it will get gargantuosly mushy, and that is not the soup vibe we are after here.
Substitutions and Variations
- This soup can easily be doubled…or halved.
- You can skip the sausage (and just cook the veggies in a bit of olive oil) or sub in ground beef for the sausage.
- Kale would work great in place of the spinach.
- Small cheese ravioli could be subbed for the tortellini – or try another kind of unfilled pasta.
Feel free to play around with the recipe and see what you come up with!
A Weeknight Wonder
This soup is glorious and delicious enough for any night of the week, including weekends or when you are entertaining!
But it’s easy enough for a simple weeknight dinner, too.
The leftovers taste fantastic! Just keep in mind that the tortellini will continue to soak up a bit of the broth, so the leftover soup will likely be quite a bit thicker than when it is right off the stove.
Served with crusty bread and a green salad, this soup makes an incredibly delicious meal!
What to Serve With This
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Creamy Tortellini Sausage Soup
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground Italian sausage
- 1 cup chopped carrots
- ½ cup chopped celery
- ½ cup chopped onion
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced (or 1 teaspoon garlic powder)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 16 ounces tomato sauce
- 4 cups chicken broth (I use low-sodium)
- 2 cups milk
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 12 to 14 ounces refrigerated cheese tortellini
- 2 cups (about 2 ounces) chopped fresh spinach
- freshly grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
Instructions
- In a large pot, add the sausage, carrots, celery, onion, and garlic. Cook over medium heat, breaking sausage into small pieces. Cook until the sausage is no longer pink and the veggies are starting to soften. Drain excess grease.
- Add the salt, basil, oregano, thyme, and pepper. Stir in the tomato sauce and broth.
- Bring the soup to a simmer and cook for 5-6 minutes. Stirring occasionally to prevent sticking; moderate heat as needed.
- Blend the milk and flour together until smooth. Whisk into the soup and bring to a simmer again. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often, until slightly thickened.
- Add the tortellini and spinach. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the tortellini is tender, stirring to prevent sticking. Add salt and pepper to taste, if needed.
- Serve with freshly grated Parmesan to sprinkle on each serving, if desired. The soup will continue to thicken as it cools.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
I made this for a Halloween party. I used ravioli that i had on hand instead of tortellini. I didn’t have any unfortunately, but i guess people there really liked it and asked for the recipe. Guess i need to make more so i can actually try it.
This was one of the best soups I’ve ever had! It got that wide-eyed “this is REALLY” good reaction. The only change I made was to add a dash of lemon juice to perk up the flavors a tiny bit. Thank you so much Mel for another great soup season staple!
So happy you enjoyed this one, Heather. Thanks for letting me know!
Mel does it again! This soup is rich with flavor. We loved it. We’re so grateful for all of your fabulous recipes and how it’s helped me as a mom love cooking for my family. Thank you!
Thank you so much, Shaylee!
I don’t know how we missed this one! We’re pretty committed to your library of soups. But we tried it tonight and my husband and 10 year old both exclaimed (separately and identically), “Wow! This is really flavorful!” So it has made the short list of soups we need to make at least monthly (though there was doubt expressed about whether that’d be often enough!). Thank you for the delicious, fast and flavorful recipe!
I’m glad you found and liked this one, Angela! Thanks for letting me know!
I made this vegetarian and it really turned out amazing. It’s always a gamble because sometimes taking out the meat really makes it feel like it’s missing something but that was certainly not the case here! I added some black eyed peas for some extra heartiness. So good and so full of flavor!
Another winning recipe!!! So fresh and delicious. My husband and I absolutely loved this soup. I used Kale instead of spinach which was .
Will made this again!
This was so easy to make and delicious! It was even more yummy the next day! Mel is converting me in to a soup lover!
This was delicious! Perfect for a cold winter day. I doubled it because I had a costco size container of tortellini and have enough for delicious leftovers! Thanks for always bringing great staple recipes, Mel!
My husband commented that it was his new favorite soup!
Our family has loved this soup. I’ve made it multiple times this winter already, and again today as a winter storm blows in. Love how flavorful and simple it is to make
Absolutely Delicious. A family favorite
Amazing soup!! This is possibly my new favorite soup ever and it’s so easy to make. Lots of flavor!
I made this in the slow cooker (throw everything in bar the milk, flour, tortellini and spinach – follow Mel’s instructions for those at the end of cooking time). It is fabulous! It got such a good review from my family it was put immediately at the top of the list to make again.
This was so good! So easy to make. I used frozen spinach and at the one grocery store in my little town, they only had dried tortellini, so I cooked it separately according to directions and then added them cooked to the soup. So yummy! We had the no knead sour dough peasant bread with it. Perfect meal!
YUM! So comforting and flavorful. A win for all four kids!
This was sooooo good! I loved the taste and texture, and it was so easy to make. Thank you for another perfect recipe!!
In case anyone is wondering, frozen spinach worked well. All I did was precook in microwave. The fresh spinach looked questionable at my local market.
Fantastic, Taylor! Thanks for the review and details!
I made this for a potluck soup dinner for my son’s marching band awards night. I admit, I was a little nervous bringing a soup I’d never made before, to serve at a potluck — but I had all the ingredients on hand, and I knew I could trust Mel.;) It was a hit! Of 25+ crockpots of soup that were there, it was one of the first ones completely gone. My own kids raved and went for seconds only to be disappointed that it was already devoured. 🙂 I used frozen tortellini and Jimmy Dean sausage because that’s what I had on hand. No complaints here!! The creamy tomato base is so flavorful, and all the veggies add a lot, too.
Thanks so much for the report back, Kamber! Glad this soup was a hit at the awards night!
Delicious! Made it the day you posted it. I used fresh tortellini that I had previously frozen and it turned out great! Definite keeper! Thank you Mel!
This was a hit with my crew! I only had Jimmy Dean sausage on hand, but it worked like a charm. Great, hearty soup!
I made the creamy sausage tortellini soup. Very good. My son wants to bring the recipe up to the river when all their friend are there
I’m happy you enjoyed it – thanks for letting me know, Joanne!
Do you think this could be made a day ahead?
Sure! You might consider adding the tortellini before serving the day of (and simmering for a few minute) – otherwise they may get super soft and absorb a lot of the liquid overnight.
New favorite soup! That smooth and creamy tomato base is amazing. I used frozen tortellini and it worked great.
Delicious! Warm and creamy and comforting and easy to make. Perfect for a chilly fall night. This will be a regular for sure.
Do you think frozen tortellini would work for this, since that is what I have on hand? Thanks.
Certainly worth a try! I’ve only ever used refrigerated since it tastes a little more fresh, but I’d say use what you have on hand!
Yum! This is delicious. Different from all the other tortellini sausage soups. I loved the additional vegetables and pleasant creaminess, my kids loved that there were no tomato chunks . Thanks for another winner, Mel!
Also… I love it when you have recipes for bananas ripening for destruction, maybe there could also be a save my wilting spinach caregory??
I haven’t made this soup yet, but I actually freeze my fresh spinach, when it getting a little old. It works great in soups like this.
Thank you Mel! You saved my bacon tonight by posting this today because our dinner in a pumpkin plan fell through. Who knew there were no more pumpkins at any stores on Halloween day? Total mom fail. We had a similar version last week. But that was a broth based veggie soup with tortellini and this blew it out of the park. The addition of sausage and the creamy tomato base made it so delicious and more hearty for a cold fall night. Winner winner!
This is actually what’s on my menu tonight! I’m going to use your recipe to tweak my own because I know it can only get better if I take tips from you. You never steer me wrong, Mel.
I’ve always wondered–can you sub in frozen spinach instead of fresh in a soup like this? I never seem to have fresh on hand.
Yes, I think you definitely could!