Soup Weather

I love soup weather! Tonight it is Tortellini Soup. I used zucchini, garlic, tomatoes, green pepper and onions from my garden. Yum!

Tortellini Soup
(6 servings)

1 pound Italian sausage, casings removed
(Or buy the breakfast kind so you don't have remove casings. I actually used turkey sausage because I was cooking for my folks).
1 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
40 oz low-sodium beef broth (very important to get the low sodium kind or it will be wayyyyyyyyyy to salty)
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce (8 oz)
1 large zucchini, thinly sliced
1 large carrot, thinly sliced
1 medium-size green bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 TBSP dried basil
2 TBSP dried oregano
10 oz cheese tortellini (fresh, dried or frozen)
Grated Parmesan cheese

Saute sausage in heavy Dutch oven over medium-high heat until cooked through. Remove cooked sausage. Pour off all but 1 TBSP drippings. (If you use turkey sausage you won't even have that much, which is fine.) Add onion and garlic to Dutch oven and saute until translucent. Return sausage to Dutch oven. Add stock, tomatoes, tomato sauce, zucchini, carrot, bell pepper, wine, basil and oregano. Simmer about 40 minutes. (Can be prepared up to 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to a simmer before continuing).

Add tortellini to soup and cook as long as package tells you, or until tortellini is done. Each person can top with Parmesan cheese if they wish.