Tortellini Soup

My husband and I recently moved to Boston and I bought a huge bag of tortellini from Costco so that we could have some quick, easy, but still relatively healthy meals while moving in. I guess I didn't realize just how many tortellini are in a Costco bag because no matter how many we ate, there always seemed to me more. In an attempt to escape my classic method of heating up the tortellini and dumping marinara or Alfredo sauce on top, I tried my hand at tortellini soup. It was fantastic! I am going to buy the Costco tortellini again just to give me an excuse to make this soup a few more times. Enjoy!

Tortellini Soup

• 1 pound Italian sausage
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 cups beef broth
• 1/2 cup water
• 8 ounces fresh tortellini pasta
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 2 cups stewed tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 8 ounces tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 cups sliced zucchini
• 2 green bell peppers, seeded and cubed
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1. Remove casings from sausage. Brown sausage and cook until crumbly. Remove meat from pot. Reserve 1 tablespoon drippings.
2. Cook onion and garlic in the drippings until tender. Add broth, water, wine, carrots, tomatoes, basil, oregano, tomato sauce, and the cooked sausage. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer uncovered 30 minutes.
3. Add zucchini, green peppers, parsley, and tortellini. Simmer another 25 minutes, covered, for fresh tortellini, or 45 minutes, covered, for frozen tortellini. Serve with fresh parmesan cheese sprinkled over the top.