Italian Sausage Soup

Savory sausage, perfectly cooked pasta, and mouthwatering veggies combine in my Italian Sausage Soup recipe! It’s flavorsome and versatile enough for family meals, friendly gatherings, appetizers, or main courses.

If you’re craving more comforting soups with Italian flavor, I hope you try these next. All are promised to be delizioso! Italian chicken soup, chicken gnocchi soup, chicken tortellini soup, or chicken Florentine soup.

Get ready for a taste of Florence in your kitchen. Let’s make this!

What I Love About  This Recipe

• Easy to make.
• Makes a BUNCH — leftovers for days!
• Deep, rich flavors and loads of veggies.
• Sausage savoriness to the max!

How To Make Italian Sausage Soup Recipe

To make your sausage soup, start by browning and crumbling (here’s my favorite tool) your sausage in an extra-large soup pot. Then soften the vegetables and combine all of the remaining ingredients except the zucchini and pasta, which are added in the last few minutes of cooking.

After tweaking the thickness and seasoning to your preference, you’re ready to serve! Top with shaved Parmesan and some more fresh basil. This recipe follows the standard soup pattern of meat, vegetables, and aromatics, which means you get a delicious meal packed with flavor in no time at all!

Ingredients + Notes

• Pasta – I found farfalline at my local Italian grocery store. If you can find it, small elbows are a great substitute.
• Parmesan Rind – Rinds are preferable to the body of the cheese due to the delectable ripening and flavor that are concentrated in them. Rinds also remain firm through the cooking process, meaning you can easily remove them from the broth before serving.
  • You can also break them up into smaller bits for your diners to enjoy! My family loves when they get these little bits of delicious flavor bombs, so I always leave them in the soup, cut up.
  • Most rinds (Parmesan included) are completely safe to eat; it’s just a matter of preference whether to fish them out or consume them. You’ll find that this old Italian secret does wonders for the complexity of your soup’s flavor profile.
• De-casing Sausage – Some recipes use sliced sausage instead of removing the skin, but I prefer the crumbled texture and enhanced flavor of the fully browned meat. Just make a thin cut down the length of the sausage, and peel the skin back in one movement.
• Beans – An unsung hero of this soup is the beans! I use three types: kidney, garbanzo, and cannellini, to get a fully rounded experience as you might find in pasta Fagioli soup. The kidney beans brings a distinct flavor, garbanzo has a chewy texture, and cannellini has a creamy finish. But feel free to experiment with your own favorite bean types!
• Thinning the Soup – As with any soup that has pasta in it, this soup will thicken as it sits. You likely will need to thin it with either chicken broth or water.
• Make it creamy – For a creamier take on this classic, supplement your broth with 2-3 cups of heavy cream. Add this when you add the pasta and zucchini. After the cream is added, make sure to moderate the heat so that the soup doesn’t boil, it only simmers.
• Add heat – Some of you like your dishes with a little more kick. I suggest you use hot Italian sausage instead of the mild one listed here. You can also heat up the soup by adding a teaspoon (or more as you like) of red pepper flakes when you sauté the aromatics (onion and other veggies).
• Add spinach – For an even more veggie-rich soup, you can add fresh or frozen spinach in the last stage of cooking, along with the zucchini. I recommend using about 2 cups of fresh or 10 ounces frozen.

Storing + Freezing + Make-Ahead

• Storing Tips: This soup will keep in the fridge for about 3 days. Just check the seasoning and consistency as you reheat it on the stove and thin it with broth.
• Can You Freeze This? This will keep in the freezer for 2-3 months. The vegetables and tomatoes will lose some of their texture, but the soup will remain tasty and of course safe to eat. I suggest that you hold the zucchini and pasta until you are ready to serve since the texture of these two ingredients is the most fragile.
  • The best way to freeze soup is to cool it, then pour it into a  1-gallon heavy-duty freezer resealable bag. Push out any air in the bag, seal it completely, then store it flat on your freezer shelf.
• Make-Ahead Tips: Make the soup directly, except don’t add pasta or zucchini. Store in the fridge. When ready to serve bring the soup to a high simmer, add the pasta and zucchini, and continue to simmer until the pasta and zucchini and tender.
• Food Safety: If you’d like more info on food safety check out this link.

How To Make Italian Sausage Soup

1. Remove casing from sausage.
2. In a soup pot, brown the sausage. Cook until there’s no longer pink. Set aside on a paper-towel-lined plate.
3. Saute the onion, celery, and carrot until tender.
4. Add all the ingredients except zucchini, pasta, and basil. Bring to a boil.
5. Add zucchini and pasta. Add more stock if the soup has become too thick. Remove bay leaves. Stir in basil.
6. Top with parmesan and fresh basil.

See full instructions below.

Serving Recommendations

This is delicious served with my Mediterranean salad or a simple garden salad tossed with balsamic vinaigrette. I also like to serve copycat Olive Garden breadsticks or this amazing garlic bread, or buttery crescent rolls.

More Soup Recipes

From sausage to chicken to veggies, soup recipes have every flavor combination you could ask for!

• Chicken Florentine Soup 
• Italian Chicken Soup
• Taco Soup
• Sausage Soup
• Hamburger Soup Recipe
• Turkey Carcass Soup
• Italian Penicillin Soup

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Italian Sausage Soup

Crumbled sausage mixes with beans, veggies, & pasta to make my Italian Sausage Soup, a nod to our favorite Olive Garden appetizer! Load up on crusty bread!

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 35 minutes mins

Servings: 16 -18 people

Ingredients

• ▢ 2 1/2 pounds Italian sausage mild
• ▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ 1 yellow onion chopped
• ▢ 2 stalks celery chopped
• ▢ 6 carrots chopped
• ▢ 6 large garlic cloves minced
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• ▢ 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• ▢ 4 bay leaves
• ▢ 1 teaspoon white sugar
• ▢ 1 (28-ounce) can chopped tomatoes
• ▢ 10-12 cups chicken stock
• ▢ 4 cups tomato juice
• ▢ parmesan rind or chunk
• ▢ 1 (15-ounce) canned kidney beans rinsed and drained
• ▢ 1 (15-ounce) canned garbanzo beans rinsed and drained
• ▢ 1 (15-ounce) canned cannellini beans rinsed and drained
• ▢ 2 zucchini, diced
• ▢ 1 cup small pasta (ditalini, mini bows or elbow)
• ▢ 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

Topping:

• ▢ 1 cup parmesan, shaved
• ▢ fresh Basil, thinly sliced

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Remove casing from sausage. In an extra-large soup pot, brown the sausage (2 1/2 pounds), breaking it up into medium pieces, as it cooks. Cook until there is no longer any pink in the sausage. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside.
• Add olive oil (2 tablespoons) to the pan then add onion (1), celery (2 stalks), and carrots (6). Cook for about 10-12 minutes or until the veggies are soft. Add garlic (6) and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes.
• Add salt (1 teaspoon), pepper (1/4 teaspoon), oregano (2 teaspoons), bay leaves (4), and sugar (1 teaspoon). Add tomatoes with their liquid (1 can), chicken stock (10-12 cups), tomato juice (4 cups), Parmesan rind, kidney beans (1 can), garbanzo beans (1 can), cannellini beans (1 can), and cooked sausage. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered for 45-60 minutes.
• Add zucchini (2) and pasta (1 cup) and cook until zucchini is tender and pasta is firm to the bite. Add more stock if the soup has become too thick. Remove bay leaves. Stir in the basil (1/4 cup). Taste for seasoning. 
• Top individual soup bowls with shaved Parmesan and some fresh basil and serve.

Fans Also Made:

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  Best Lasagna Soup Recipe (Easy One-Pot Dinner)
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Notes

1. Pasta – I found farfalline at my local Italian grocery store. If you can find it, small elbows are a great substitute.
2. Parmesan Rind – Rinds are preferable to the body of the cheese due to the delectable ripening and flavor that are concentrated in them. Rinds also remain firm through the cooking process, meaning you can easily remove them from the broth before serving.
   • You can also break them up into smaller bits for your diners to enjoy! My family loves when they get these little bits of delicious flavor bombs, so I always leave them in the soup, cut up.
   • Most rinds (Parmesan included) are completely safe to eat; it’s just a matter of preference whether to fish them out or consume them. You’ll find that this old Italian secret does wonders for the complexity of your soup’s flavor profile.
3. De-casing Sausage – Some recipes use sliced sausage instead of removing the skin, but I prefer the crumbled texture and enhanced flavor of the fully browned meat. Just make a thin cut down the length of the sausage, and peel the skin back in one movement.
4. Beans – An unsung hero of this soup is the beans! I use three types: kidney, garbanzo, and cannellini, to get a fully rounded experience as you might find in pasta Fagioli soup. Kidney brings a distinct flavor, garbanzo a chewy texture, and cannellini a creamy finish. But feel free to experiment with your own favorite bean types!
5. Thinning the Soup – As with any soup that has pasta in it, this soup will thicken as it sits. You likely will need to thin it with either chicken broth or water.
6. Make it creamy – For a creamier take on this classic, supplement your broth with 2-3 cups of heavy cream. Add this when you add the pasta and zucchini. After the cream is added, make sure to moderate the heat so that the soup doesn’t boil, it only simmers.
7. Add heat – Some of you like your dishes with a little more kick. I suggest you use hot Italian sausage instead of the mild one listed here. You can also heat up the soup by adding a teaspoon (or more as you like) of red pepper flakes when you sauté the aromatics (onion and other veggies).
8. Add spinach – For an even more veggie-rich soup, you can add fresh or frozen spinach in the last stage of cooking, along with the zucchini. I recommend using about 2 cups of fresh or 10 ounces frozen.

Nutrition

Serving: 1/18 of the recipe | Calories: 480kcal | Carbohydrates: 41g | Protein: 24g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 56mg | Sodium: 1023mg | Potassium: 763mg | Fiber: 9g | Sugar: 11.4g | Vitamin A: 3750IU | Vitamin C: 17.3mg | Calcium: 106mg | Iron: 1.7mg

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