Baby it's Cold Outside TORTELLINI SOUP

I

Brrrrr!

A couple weeks before Christmas, and it's 13 degrees outside.

The fireplace is lit, and presents are slowly starting to add up under the tree.

What a perfect day for a big bowl of bone-warming soup.

Tortellini Soup to be exact.

I love this recipe because it's so versatile.  It's hearty, and filling, and the perfect way to end a 13 degree day.

Here's the cast:

1 lb. Jimmy Dean Regular Pork Sausage Roll

1 bag frozen meatballs

1 bag Birds Eye California Blend Frozen Vegetables

32 ounce Carton Swanson Beef Broth

29 ounce can Tomato Sauce

1/4 c. diced onion

1 Tbsp. chopped garlic

2 cans of water (use your tomato sauce can and fill it twice with water)

1 package refrigerated Cheese Filled Tortellini

Parmesan Cheese (optional)

In a pretty large stock pot, start frying the Jimmy Dean sausage along with the garlic and onion.

I normally use frozen onion, that way it's already diced up and I just grab a handful and throw it into the pot.  But if you have fresh onion, by all means, dice away.

Same with the garlic.  I use the jar diced garlic.  But please, if you have fresh, wonderful.

Get the garlic and onion and sausage frying.

While your sausage, onion and garlic are making the house start to smell wonderful, get out your bag of meatballs.  Hopefully they are not frozen solid because they've been sitting out on the counter for awhile.

Grab about 8 meatballs, put the rest back into a Ziploc back and pop them in the freezer.  You can use them at a later date.  Meatball sandwiches perhaps?

Now cut your meatballs in to quarters.  You know, cut in half, then in half again.  Just in case you were bad at math.

When your sausage has cooked through, pour in all the beef broth, and the can of tomato sauce.  Then take the empty can and fill it with water and add that to the pot.  Now, do that one more time, fill the can with water and add it.

Now for the frozen vegetables.  I get the California Blend by Birds Eye. It has carrots in the shape of rectangles, and cauliflower and broccoli florets.

This is a nice hearty soup, so you sort of want big chunks of vegetables so that's why I like this version.  But feel free to pick your favorite frozen veggie mix.

Add the bag of frozen vegetables, and all your meatball chunks to the soup pot.

Keep the heat on high and let it get to a nice rolling boil.  Once it starts to bubble and boil, add your tortellini.  Keep the temp on high  and let it boil until the tortellini are cooked through and tender.

Turn the heat down to low and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Now ladle this warm & cozy soup into a nice big soup bowl.

I like to top each bowl with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and of course, serve with some garlic bread. Or my favorite.....just a slice of sandwich bread with butter spread all over it!  Nothing beats bread and butter with a bowl of hearty soup.

Yum E.

All warm now! 

Enjoy.