Creamy Tortellini Soup with Italian Sausage
Tortellini soup with Italian sausage, cheese tortellini, and baby spinach in a creamy tomato broth. One pot, 40 minutes, feeds 8.
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Tortellini soup is what I make when dinner needs to happen fast and still feel like somebody cooked. Italian sausage browns in the bottom of the pot, a splash of cream goes in at the end, and the cheese tortellini cook right in the broth, so there’s one pot to wash and no colander in the sink.
Refrigerated tortellini cook in about 5 minutes, which is exactly why they go in near the end. Drop them in early and they swell, soak broth into their seams, and split open by the time everyone sits down. Five minutes at a steady simmer is all they want.
The cream goes in off the boil. Heavy cream can break if it hits a hard-boiling pot, so turn the heat to low first and stir it in along with the spinach. Two minutes is enough to warm the cream through, and the spinach wilts in about that long anyway.
Why You’ll Love This Tortellini Soup Recipe
- One pot, start to finish. The sausage browns, the broth simmers, and the tortellini cook in the same Dutch oven.
- Forty minutes, most of it hands off. Ten minutes of chopping, then it simmers while you set the table.
- Creamy without being heavy. One cup of heavy cream across eight servings loosens the tomato broth into something silky instead of turning it into a cream soup.
- Kids eat it without negotiating. Cheese-filled pasta in a mild tomato broth is about as safe as dinner gets with a picky eater at the table.
Tortellini Soup Ingredients
Buy refrigerated tortellini from the deli case, not the dried shelf-stable kind. The refrigerated ones cook in about 5 minutes and stay tender in broth. Dried tortellini need closer to 15 minutes and drink up a lot more of your soup on the way there.
- 1 lb mild Italian sausage, casings removed
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 7 cups chicken broth
- 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes with juices
- 1 (20 oz) package refrigerated cheese tortellini
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 5 oz fresh baby spinach (about 4 packed cups)
- 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan, for serving
Recipe Variations
- Use 1 pound of ground turkey instead of Italian sausage. Cook it to 165°F, not 160°F, since turkey is poultry, and add 1 teaspoon of crushed fennel seed plus 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes so it doesn’t taste flat next to the tomatoes.
- Swap the baby spinach for 4 cups of chopped kale. Add it with the tortellini instead of at the end, because kale needs about 5 minutes to go tender where spinach needs one.
- Skip the cream for a brothier soup and add 1 more cup of chicken broth in its place. Finish each bowl with extra parmesan, which gives you back some of the richness.
How to Make Tortellini Soup
- Brown the sausage: Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the Italian sausage and cook for 7-8 minutes, breaking it into small crumbles, until browned with no pink left and an internal temperature of 160°F. Leave it in the pot with the drippings.
- Soften the vegetables: Add the onion and celery and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion turns translucent and the celery loses its crunch.
- Add the garlic and flour: Stir in the garlic, flour, Italian seasoning, and black pepper. Keep stirring for 1 minute, until the flour disappears into the fat and the pot smells like garlic instead of raw flour.
- Simmer the broth: Pour in the chicken broth and the diced tomatoes with their juices, scraping the browned bits off the bottom. Bring it to a boil, then reduce to a steady simmer and cook uncovered for 10 minutes.
- Cook the tortellini: Stir in the tortellini and simmer for 5 minutes, until they float and are tender all the way through. Check one before you move on, since package times vary by brand.
- Finish with cream and spinach: Turn the heat to low. Stir in the heavy cream and the baby spinach and cook 2 minutes, until the spinach wilts and the soup is hot through. Don’t let it boil again. Taste, then add the salt.
- Serve: Ladle into bowls and top each one with grated parmesan.
Recipe FAQs
Can I Make This Tortellini Soup Ahead of Time?
You can, with one change: leave the tortellini out. Make the soup through the cream and spinach, refrigerate up to 3 days, then reheat and cook the tortellini fresh in the pot. Tortellini that sit in broth overnight swell up and go mushy.
Can I Use Frozen Tortellini?
Yes. Add them straight from the freezer and simmer 7-8 minutes instead of 5. Don’t thaw them first or they stick together into one clump.
Why Did My Soup Curdle?
The cream hit a hard boil. Drop the heat to low before it goes in and keep it there. Full-fat heavy cream also holds up far better than milk or half-and-half, which separate easily.
Can I Use Hot Italian Sausage?
Yes, and it’s good this way. Hot sausage brings enough heat that you can skip any added red pepper. Cook it to 160°F just like the mild kind.
What Should I Serve with Tortellini Soup?
Crusty bread or garlic bread for dipping, and a sharp green salad if you want something bright against the cream. The soup is filling enough to be the whole dinner.
Cooking Tips
- Break the sausage into small crumbles while it’s still raw, not after the outside sets. Once it browns, the pieces stop wanting to come apart and you end up with a few big lumps instead of meat in every spoonful.
- Rinse the tomato can out with a splash of the broth. There are a couple of tablespoons of tomato clinging to the sides, and it’s the difference between a rich broth and a slightly thin one.
- Salt only at the very end. Sausage, broth, and parmesan are all salty, and how salty depends entirely on which brands ended up in your cart.
Storage and Freezing
To store: Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days. The tortellini keep drinking up broth as they sit, so the soup is noticeably thicker the next day.
To freeze: Freezing the finished soup doesn’t work well. The cream separates and the tortellini turn pasty. Instead, make the soup through the 10-minute simmer, freeze that base up to 3 months, and add tortellini, cream, and spinach fresh when you reheat it.
To reheat: Warm it in a pot over medium-low heat with a splash of broth stirred in to loosen it, until it reaches 165°F. Skip the microwave when you can, since it heats unevenly and the cream can break.
How to Serve Tortellini Soup
Tortellini soup is a whole dinner in a bowl, so all it really needs beside it is something for dipping. Warm garlic bread, a crusty baguette, or soft dinner rolls all work. An arugula salad with lemon and olive oil cuts the cream nicely if you want something green on the table.
Loved This Recipe?
Tortellini soup goes from cutting board to bowls in 40 minutes and leaves one pot to wash, which is most of why it stays in the rotation.
Leave a star rating in the comments below, it helps other people find this recipe. Made it? Tag @allwellfed on Instagram, I love seeing this one in other people’s kitchens.
Creamy Tortellini Soup with Italian Sausage
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb mild Italian sausage casings removed
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 2 ribs celery diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 7 cups chicken broth
- 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes with juices
- 1 (20 oz) package refrigerated cheese tortellini
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 5 oz fresh baby spinach about 4 packed cups
- 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan for serving
Instructions
- Brown the sausage: Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the Italian sausage and cook for 7-8 minutes, breaking it into small crumbles, until browned with no pink left and an internal temperature of 160°F. Leave it in the pot with the drippings.
- Soften the vegetables: Add the onion and celery and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring now and then, until the onion turns translucent and the celery loses its crunch.
- Add the garlic and flour: Stir in the garlic, flour, Italian seasoning, and black pepper. Keep stirring for 1 minute, until the flour disappears into the fat and the pot smells like garlic instead of raw flour.
- Simmer the broth: Pour in the chicken broth and the diced tomatoes with their juices, scraping the browned bits off the bottom. Bring it to a boil, then reduce to a steady simmer and cook uncovered for 10 minutes.
- Cook the tortellini: Stir in the tortellini and simmer for 5 minutes, until they float and are tender all the way through. Check one before you move on, since package times vary by brand.
- Finish with cream and spinach: Turn the heat to low. Stir in the heavy cream and the baby spinach and cook 2 minutes, until the spinach wilts and the soup is hot through. Don’t let it boil again. Taste, then add the salt.
- Serve: Ladle into bowls and top each one with grated parmesan.
Notes
If you made this, leave a star rating down in the comments. It takes about ten seconds, and it’s how other cooks decide whether a recipe is worth trying.
