AMAZING ITALIAN SOUP GOOD FOR THE COLD DAYS AHEAD

I found this recipe on the internet and tweaked it a bit to make it my own.

Here are the ingredients.

1 package of Italian sweet sausage links-cut open links and fry the crumbled sausage in a pot. 

1 32 oz. container of chicken broth
2 leeks-in the picture you will see a whole sweet onion, but I opted out for 2 thinly sliced cleaned leeks
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 bag of fresh spinach
3 T. tomato paste
1 T. Italian seasoning
2 thinly sliced carrots
2 bay leaves
1 bag of small bow ties-more about this later
2 T. minced garlic
1 can of cannelloni beans
*I decided to add one 1-11.5 oz can of V8 juice because it didn't have enough broth to my liking
S&P at the end to taste
Fresh parmesan for nests




First, I cooked up the sausage, leaving the great to sauté my veggies, but draining the cooked sausage on paper towels.

I originally cut up the whole sweet onion, but after buying fresh leeks at the store I decided to cut two leeks in place of the onion.

I sautéed the leeks, minced garlic and carrots in the grease from the sausage for 5-10 minutes.  Return the sausage to the pot with the tomatoes, V8, paste and broth.  Season with the Italian seasoning, by leaves and a good grinding of black pepper.  Hold off on the salting to taste until the end. When you're ready to eat, add the beans and spinach and bring back to a simmer for 30 minutes.  Taste to add salt, or any extra pepper

  Meanwhile, I boiled water to cook the pasta, drained it and kept it to the side. 

 Many times when you reheat soup with pasta, it becomes mushy.  This way, when I was ready to serve the soup, I boiled a pot of water and submerged the cooked bow tie pasta in it for 1 minute and then drained one portion at a time. While serving the soup, I put about a half a cup of cooked bowties in the bottom of the soup bowl and then a ladle of the soup itself.

Finally, I added fresh Parmesan to the top of the soup. 

***NEXT TIME, I AM GOING TO MAKE PARMESAN NESTS UNDER THE BROILER AND THEN SET A NEST ON TOP OF EACH BOWL.

This is an excellent soup for those snowy, cold winter evenings.