Making a Sausage Soup on Saturday

Weeks during the winter I can be found in the kitchen making a pot of soup for the week. We often have it for a quick lunch, or as an addition to dinner.

Although we don’t really eat much spicy food, this soup has a small kick from the sausage. I use sweet sausage as is our preference, but spicy sausage would work just as well. I decided on sausage soup today because I found a couple large links in the freezer, and unsure of how long they have been there, I figured I should use it up somehow.

The recipe makes a dutch oven full, so we’ll have 3 quarts or so for the week ahead. As I assembled the ingredients I had on hand to use, I decided to add a couple anchovy fillets from the jar I keep in the fridge. Anchovies will melt right into anything you are cooking – you’ll never see pieces of them, and they add a great unami kick, without ever being fishy. Feel free to leave them out if someone has fish allergies or an aversion to anchovies. Or don’t tell anyone they are the secret ingredient.

sausage soup ingredients

Mushrooms also add texture and taste – I used some large white stuffing mushrooms I had, but baby bella/cremini, large portobella or a mix of wild mushrooms like oyster and shiitake would be very nice.

sauteed sausage and vegetables

I also changed my mind from using whole tomatoes smashed up to just a 1/4 cup of tomato paste. It’s enough to add flavor; I don’t really like chunks of tomato in my soups. The pasta – I had a little bit of mixed vegetable pasta in the bottom of a box, just enough for soup. Use whatever dried pasta you like or have on hand. Even orzo would work. The rest – onions, garlic, mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce, beef bouillon or concentrate and herbs – are all things I always have on hand in the pantry and fridge.

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Sausage Pasta Mushroom Soup

A hearty slightly spicy soup that is a meal in itself.  No exotic ingredients, and flexible to make with whatever you have on hand.  The anchovy fillets will melt away, and you’ll never taste them, but omit them if you like, and increase the amount of salt for flavoring.
Course Soup
Cuisine American
Keyword Sausage soup, sausage mushroom soup, sausage pasta soup
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Servings 9 people

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 lb sausage, spicy or sweet casings removed
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 4 large mushrooms, roughly chopped any variety or a mix
  • 1 medium sweet bell red pepper, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, grated or minced
  • 2-3 each anchovy fillets packed in salt & oil
  • 8 cups water
  • 1/4 cup tomato paste
  • 2 tsp worchestershire sauce
  • 2 tsp concentrated beef stock or boullion cubes
  • 1 tsp dried rosemary, chopped
  • 2 tsp dried thyme
  • 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 cups dried pasta – bowties, shells, mixed shapes

Instructions

  1. Over low-medium hot dutch oven, brown the sausage.  If it does not produce it’s own fat, add the olive oil.

  2. Once browned, add the onion.  Stir a couple times, then also add the chopped mushrooms.  In 2-3 minutes, add the diced pepper & garlic, & anchovies and stir in.  The anchovies will melt into the fat.

  3. Once the pepper and onions have started to soften, add all the water and concentrate or bouillon cubes (or feel free to use beef stock for half of the water if you have it).

  4. Stir in the dried herbs, salt and pepper.  Let simmer on low for 20 minutes or so to meld the flavors together.

  5. Add the pasta and simmer until the pasta is cooked.  It will absorb some of the water, so feel free to add more stock or water if it gets too thick for you.

My favorite cast iron dutch oven: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00063RWYI/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00063RWYI&linkCode=as2&tag=fph08-20 

Feel free to use a steel or enamel dutch oven too, just keep the heat low.