This Creamy Sausage Tortellini Soup combines hearty Italian sausage with cheese-filled tortellini and fresh vegetables in a rich tomato-Parmesan broth. It’s a warm and satisfying comfort food dish that tastes like it came from a restaurant!
Looking for more Italian-inspired soup recipes? Don’t miss my Italian Wedding Soup and Creamy Chicken Gnocchi Soup!
Before You Start Cooking
- Easy to Make: You can have this one-pot meal on the table in about an hour, making it great for busy schedules. Save even more time by partially prepping it ahead and finishing the soup when you want to serve it. See my Make-Ahead Tips for more.
- Equipment: You’ll need a large, heavy-bottomed pot to make this recipe. The pot pictured in this post is a Le Creuset 6-3/4 Quart Wide Round Dutch Oven—one of my favorites for soup!
- Customize It: This soup is “mild” on the spicy scale as written but can easily be adjusted if you prefer some heat. Check the Variations section for substitution tips.
How to Make Creamy Sausage Tortellini Soup
Step 1. Brown the Sausage and Sauté the Veggies
Start the soup by browning sweet Italian sausage with about a tablespoon of regular olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. If using link sausage (rather than bulk ground sausage), remove the meat from the casings before cooking.
Use a wooden spoon or a meat masher to break up the sausage into small to medium crumbles. When browned, use a slotted spoon to remove the sausage to a bowl, leaving the released fat in the pan.
You’ll need about 3 tablespoons of fat in the pot to start cooking the vegetables for the aromatic soup base. If the sausage hasn’t released this much (the amount can vary by batch and brand), add more olive oil to make up the difference.
Add chopped yellow onions, carrots, and celery to the pot and season with salt and pepper. For weeknight convenience and quick cooking, I use pre-cut matchstick carrots from the grocery store. You can also cut whole carrots into a small dice.
Cook over medium-high heat until the vegetables are beginning to soften, about 5 minutes.
2. Build the Soup’s Base
When vegetables begin to soften, continue building the soup’s base layer of flavor with garlic and double-concentrated tomato paste. Add both to the pot and stir them into the vegetables for 1-2 minutes. The garlic will quickly become fragrant, and the tomato paste will transition to a deeper, brick-like color.
Since tomato paste can have a bit of a metallic taste right out of the tube, cooking it for a few minutes before liquids are added to the pot helps it to develop a more complex, caramelized flavor.
Next, pour dry white wine into the pot to deglaze it (I use Pinot Grigio). Use a wooden spoon to scrape the browned bits (known as “fond”) from the bottom of the pot. These bits are packed with caramelized flavor from the sausage, vegetables, and tomato paste, and will enrich the broth.
Allow the wine to simmer, stirring frequently, until almost completely evaporated. This will take about 2-3 minutes, concentrating the flavors.
Step 3: Simmer the Soup
Return the browned sausage to the pot, making sure to include any juices collected in the bowl. Sprinkle all-purpose flour over the sausage, stirring thoroughly. This will help the soup thicken a bit as it simmers and make the broth velvety.
At this point, the mixture will appear thick and somewhat pasty—this is ok. Cook it for about a minute, stirring constantly, to eliminate any raw taste of flour in the soup.
While stirring, gradually pour chicken broth or stock into the mixture. As you stir and the liquid heats up, the roux will melt into the broth.
Tip: To better control the soup’s sodium content, I recommend using a low- or moderate-sodium broth and salting the soup to taste.
When the broth is well-combined with the sausage and vegetables, stir in petite diced tomatoes (with their juices) and dried Italian seasoning. I recommend using Roma tomatoes for the best flavor.
Bring the soup to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. This will infuse the broth with the flavors of the sausage, tomatoes, and seasonings.
Add refrigerated cheese tortellini or tortelloni to the soup and bring it to a gentle boil, cooking until the pasta reaches an al dente texture. Different brands will have varying cooking times, usually between 2-3 minutes and 5-8 minutes.
Gently stir the soup a few times as the tortellini cook to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Tortellini vs Tortelloni
I most often use fresh tortelloni in this recipe, which are a bit bigger than tortellini and give the soup a hearty feel. (Read more about the differences between the two here.)
My family loves Kirkland Signature 5 Cheese Tortelloni from Costco, as shown in the photos. When shopping at the regular grocery store, I typically buy Giovanni Rana 5-Cheese Tortellini.
Step 4: Finishing Touches
When the pasta is tender, turn off the heat and add grated Parmigiano Reggiano, roughly chopped or torn baby spinach, and a handful of torn fresh basil leaves. Stir the soup until the spinach is wilted from the residual heat in the pot; this will only take a minute or two.
Finish the soup with heavy cream and season the soup to taste with additional salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning, if needed. Soup made with lower-sodium broth or stock will need a bit more salt added at the end to fully bring out the flavors.
Variations
- Make it spicy. Substitute hot Italian sausage or a mixture of sweet and hot varieties. If using mild sausage, you can also add a pinch (or more, to taste) of crushed red pepper flakes to the soup when you sauté the veggies.
- Use dried or frozen tortellini. I’ve only tested this recipe with fresh pasta, but dried or frozen tortellini can be substituted. Consult the package instructions for recommended cooking times; they will be longer than most fresh pasta varieties. Dried pasta might absorb more liquid, so have extra broth or stock on hand if needed.
- Poultry sausage. You can substitute Italian-style chicken or turkey sausage instead of pork. These varieties will probably not release as much fat into the pan, so you might need to add additional olive oil to cook the veggies.
Serving and Storing Creamy Sausage Tortellini Soup
Ladle the hot soup into bowls and top with black pepper and freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano. (If you like extra heat, you can also add a pinch or two of crushed red pepper flakes on top.)
We like to serve Creamy Tortellini Sausage Soup with slices of crusty Italian bread for dipping into the tomato broth.
To Store Leftovers: Refrigerate the soup in a tightly covered container within 2 hours. It will keep well in the fridge for 3-4 days.
To Reheat: Warm leftovers gently on the stove, stirring frequently until heated through. The pasta may absorb some broth during storage, so if necessary, adjust the consistency by adding a little extra chicken broth or stock.
Not Freezer Friendly: I don’t recommend freezing this soup. Since it’s cream-based, it can be more prone to separating and taking on a grainy texture when frozen and reheated.
Make Ahead Tips
While the soup reheats nicely as leftovers, I recommend a staged cooking approach if you’re specifically making it to serve at another time.
A day or two before serving, you can prepare the soup through step #7 in the recipe card below (the 15-minute simmer). Cool the soup and store it in the refrigerator.
When ready to serve, bring the soup back to a simmer, add the tortellini, and continue with the recipe from Step #8. This will ensure that the pasta and spinach are not overcooked when served.
More Cozy Soup Recipes
- Split Pea Soup with Ham
- Cream of Mushroom Soup
- Creamy Roasted Tomato Soup
- French Lentil Soup with Escarole
- Wonton Soup
- Creamy Turkey Wild Rice Soup
- Homemade Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup
- Crockpot Hashbrown Potato Soup
Creamy Sausage Tortellini Soup
Ingredients
- 1 pound Italian pork sausage (see note)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil , plus extra if needed
- 1 cup chopped yellow onion
- 3/4 cup shredded or small diced carrots
- 1/2 cup thinly-sliced or small diced celery
- 3 large cloves garlic , minced (about 1 tablespoon)
- 2 tablespoons double concentrated tomato paste
- 1/2 cup dry white wine (I use Pinot Grigio)
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 6 cups chicken broth or stock (use low sodium to control salt content)
- Two, 14.5 ounce cans petite diced Roma tomatoes (in juice)
- 1-1/2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning/Italian herbs , plus extra if needed
- 12 ounces refrigerated cheese tortellini or tortelloni
- 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
- 2 packed cups baby spinach , roughly chopped or torn (about 3 ounces)
- 5 large fresh basil leaves (a handful), roughly torn
- 1 cup heavy cream
- kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a large pot over medium-high heat, brown the sausage in 1 tablespoon olive oil. (I use a 6-3/4 quart enameled cast iron Dutch oven.) As the sausage cooks, break it up into small to medium pieces using a wooden spoon or meat masher.
- When the sausage is browned, remove it from the pot with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat behind in the pan. Place the sausage in a bowl and set aside.
- You'll need about 3 tablespoons of fat in the pan to cook the vegetables. If the sausage has not released this much, add additional olive oil to the pot as needed. If the sausage has released substantially more fat than this, drain off all but 3 tablespoons.
- Add the onion, carrots, and celery with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Cook until just starting to soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and tomato paste and cook for 1-2 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant and the tomato paste starts to develop a brick-like color.
- Pour in the wine and scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. Simmer, stirring often, until almost all of the liquid is evaporated, 2-3 minutes.
- Stir the reserved sausage into the vegetables, along with any accumulated juices in the bowl. Sprinkle the flour into the pot and cook, stirring for 1-2 minutes.
- Gradually pour the broth into the pot, stirring until well combined with the sausage mixture. Stir in the diced tomatoes (with juice) and Italian seasoning. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the tortellini and cook until al-dente, anywhere from 2-3 minutes to 5-8 minutes, depending on the brand you're using. Adjust the heat to maintain a gentle boil and stir the soup a few times as the tortellini cook.
- When the pasta is tender, turn off the heat and immediately stir in the Parmigiano Reggiano, spinach, and basil. Stir for just a couple of minutes, until the spinach is wilted. Stir in the heavy cream.
- Season the soup to taste with salt, pepper, and additional Italian seasoning, if needed. The salt needed will vary depending on the sodium content of your broth. Similarly, the quantity of Italian seasoning will depend on the amount of seasoning in the sausage.
- Serve the soup hot, garnished in serving bowls with additional Parmigiano Reggiano and pepper on top. We like to serve sliced Italian bread on the side for dipping.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
About our recipes
Please note that our recipes have been developed using the US Customary measurement system and have not been tested for high altitude/elevation cooking and baking.
Editor’s note: This recipe was originally published on Striped Spatula in January 2024. We have updated the blog post with improved copy for a better reader experience.
