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This Italian sausage tortellini soup recipe is loaded with flavorful sausage and cheesy pasta in an irresistible creamy tomato broth. It has very little prep time and can be on your table in just 40 minutes!
Try my fairly similar Crockpot Tortellini Soup with Sausage if you’d like an alternative cooking method.
Why you’ll love it
You know that feeling you get when you eat the perfect bowl of soup, and it warms you up from the inside out? Yes, this cheese tortellini soup with sausage is the best comfort food meal on a chilly day! Italian sausage and tortellini are an iconic duo, and the creamy tomato broth is so good.
One of the awesome things about this soup is that it has minimal prep time. Chop the onion and celery, crumble the sausage (or use sausage meat), and that’s essentially it. It means that a complete and filling dinner for your whole family is ready faster on busy weeknights.
What you’ll need
- Italian sausage – it has a fantastic blend of herbs and spices. I use mild.
- Onion, celery, and garlic – these staples are the building blocks to any good soup
- Flour – to thicken the broth
- Chicken broth – another layer of flavor
- Diced tomatoes – tomatoes complement the sausage, and using the juices too is important for depth of flavor
- Italian seasoning – this blend of herbs including rosemary, oregano, and thyme makes the soup special. It comes in a single jar.
- Cheese tortellini – I use refrigerated tortellini because it cooks faster, but you’re welcome to use dried; just note that it’ll take longer to cook
- Heavy cream – don’t skip the cream! The silky texture and taste is so good.
- Spinach – tossing in a handful of baby spinach sneaks in some extra veggies
Tools for this recipe
Check out Natasha’s favorite kitchen essentials, gadgets, and cookware!
- Use a soup pot or sturdy Dutch oven for this soup.
- I recommend this ladle. It’s great at not spilling everywhere when dishing up soup.
- For the other half of the onion you’ll have left, store in this cute onion saver. And easily mince the garlic with a garlic press. No peeling needed!
How to make Italian sausage tortellini soup
This is an overview with step-by-step photos. Full ingredients & instructions are in the recipe card below.
In a large soup pot or Dutch oven sauté the crumbled sausage meat until browned. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate, drain most of the fat, and then cook the chopped onion and celery.
Add in the flour and garlic and cook for a minute, stirring constantly. Slowly pour in the chicken broth.
Add the tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and sausage meat. Bring to a boil, add in the pasta, and simmer. Finally, stir in the cream and spinach.
Substitutions and variations
- Be careful subbing the cream because the acidity of the tomatoes may curdle anything with a lower fat content than heavy cream.
- Try a different variety of sausage like chicken or turkey to change it up.
- If you’re not a fan of regular diced tomatoes, use petite diced tomatoes or tomato sauce instead.
- Craving something spicy? Throw in some crushed red pepper flakes or use hot Italian sausage.
- If spinach isn’t your thing, try kale, but let it cook for a little bit longer. This recipe is very flexible, so add in more veggies if you happen to have any on hand that need using up.
Make ahead tip
- If you plan on having leftovers, add the cheese tortellini to individual portions instead when you reheat them. That way, the pasta will cook quickly right in the soup when you need it and won’t have gone too soft!
What to serve with sausage tortellini soup
- This is a hearty soup, but a slice of Garlic Bread would be wonderful with it!
- You’ll even have time to make my 10 Minute Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing for a side salad, or try my Simple Parmesan Arugula Salad.
- Shaved fresh parmesan cheese takes this soup over the top.
Leftovers and storage
- I recommend eating this soup within a couple of days. The tortellini will soak up the broth and puff up the longer it’s in the fridge.
- You can freeze this soup, but if you want to freeze the entire batch, it’s best to leave out the cream, spinach, and tortellini and then add them when you’re reheating.
- If you freeze leftovers as-is, the pasta may not have the same texture as when first cooked.
I hope you try this sausage and tortellini soup recipe! I’d love it if you left a star rating and review below. You can also find me on Instagram.
Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup
Ingredients
- 16 ounces Italian sausage see note
- 1/2 medium onion chopped finely
- 2 sticks celery chopped finely
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 3-4 cloves garlic minced
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juices
- 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 2 generous cups refrigerated cheese tortellini
- 1 cup heavy/whipping cream
- 2 cups (packed) fresh baby spinach optional
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add the sausage meat to a large soup pot. Sauté over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, for 7-10 minutes, or until the sausage is browned all over.
- Take the sausage out of the pot and set it aside on a paper towel lined plate. Leave about a tablespoon of the fat in the pot (drain any excess).
- Add the onion and celery to the pot and cook for 4-5 minutes.
- Add the flour and garlic and cook for a minute, stirring constantly.
- Slowly add the chicken broth and stir until the flour has completely dissolved.
- Add the canned tomatoes and Italian seasoning to the pot. Also add the sausage back in. Increase the heat to high and bring the soup to a gentle boil.
- Once it’s boiling, add the tortellini and reduce the heat so it’s gently simmering. Cook for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the cream and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Stir in the spinach and season with salt & pepper to taste.
Notes
- For the sausages, anything around the 16 ounce/1 pound ballpark is fine – it doesn’t need to be exact. You can either buy ground sausage meat or, if using whole sausages, take the meat out of the casings.
- This recipe is also in chapter 5 of the Salt & Lavender: Everyday Essentials hardcover cookbook.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
© Salt & Lavender Inc. Content and photographs are copyrighted. Sharing this blog post is much appreciated, but copying and pasting full recipes without authorization to social media is strictly prohibited.
This recipe was originally published on November 28, 2017. It’s been tweaked to be even easier, tastier, and has new photos!
Hi! This soup was so delicious! Perfect dinner for a cool night. I didn’t have sausage so I ended using an herb ground poultry I had along with spinach and cheese tortellini. I also added some spinach at the end when I added the cream. Overall, I really enjoyed this! I loved the flavor, the consistency and the heartiness of it! Thanks for another great recipe!
I’m glad you were able to adapt it, Cary! 🙂 Thanks for commenting!
This soup was AMAZING! I followed the recipe exactly as it was & it turned out great. I normally can’t follow recipes that well- but this one was so easy to follow. My took one taste and said it was the best thing I’ve ever made LOL. Can’t wait to try some more recipes on here!
Woo hoo!! I’m so happy it was a hit! Thanks for leaving me a comment! 😀
OMG!!!! THIS ONE’S A KEEPER! SOOO GOOD! I’m so scared I will make this so much that I’ll get sick of it & stop liking it! lol Brought leftovers to work & gave several co-workers a 1 spoon taste sample (just enough to make them mad!) everyone said how good it was & of course I gave them your recipe…(sharing is caring ;-D ) & I just sent it to my daughters too. The only problem was while at work I heated it up in the microwave in one of those small glass bowls with the plastic locking lid…..I just laid the lid across the top but it created a vacuum suction which didn’t budge for almost 20 minutes…I was getting frantic asking anyone to help free my soup!!! girls, guys, no one could open that doggone thing up!!! They took me to the tool guy who pried the lid off……..Heaven !!! Thx Natasha XOXOXO (my tweaks +shallot -onion, +knorr tomato/chicken bouillon granules
– salt) I’m Hooked…
I’m so glad you like the recipe so much!! And thank you for sharing it 😉 Lol I’ve done that with the vacuum suction. I pry the sucker off (carefully) with a knife lol. XOXO
I made this with tonight with vegetarian Italian sausage, and it was so delicious!
I’m so glad you liked it! 🙂
Do you recommend adding white beans to this for more fiber? Or would they turn to mush? Love your site; it’s one of my go-to’s for quick and delicious dinner ideas 😋
Aww so glad you like my recipes! ♥️ I think adding white beans will be fine. They’ll definitely be soft (like the canned ones already are), but I’ve added them to slow cooker soups before and they’ve been fine.
This is a great recipe! I did add much more dried basil and oregano and subbed in turkey Italian sausage to make it healthier. Everyone loved it! I added the spinach to the bottom of my bowl, ladled the soup over it and it softened and was delicious!
That’s a good idea re: the spinach! So glad it was a hit. ♥️
I made this for dinner tonight and it was fabulous! I used 16 oz. sausage meat that I rolled into bite sized meatballs before browning. We can’t wait to make this again! Thank you!
Awesome!! ♥️♥️
This was SO good. I would definitely make it again. I used sweet Italian sausage which I thought went well with the acidity of the tomatoes. I would probably use ‘petite’ diced tomatoes next time though because my kids complained about how big the tomato chunks were (I didn’t mind).
So happy you liked it! Good idea re: the petite diced tomatoes. I prefer them too, but I can’t always seem to find them at my grocery store unfortunately.
I added squash zucchini spinach and carrots! Great stuff
So happy to hear it, Dawn!
My husband and I don’t like chunks of tomato in our soups. What can we use to replace the diced tomatoes? Crushed/pureed tomatoes?
Yes, you could try that.
Which type tortellini dried or “fresh” from the refrigerator section? I am thinking dried.
It’s the kind that’s refrigerated… so “fresh”. 🙂 Here’s an example: https://www.olivieri.ca/en/product/olivieri-signature-formaggi-aged-parmesan-reggiano-tortelloni