Hearty Winter Soup with Sausage and Tortellini

I have been on a soup kick the past few weeks. Every Sunday, I like to make a big pot of soup that we enjoy throughout the week for dinner. It's a quick and easy meal (mostly due to the french stick we scarf down with it), it's healthy and always satisfying.

As you can no doubt see, I usually gravitate towards cream soups -- cream of leak and potato, cream of cauliflower, cream of squash -- so this week I wanted to make something with pasta in it. Specifically tortellini -- cheese-stuffed are my favourite.

It wasn't long before I found a hearty recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com/ and I simply adapted it to what I had on hand. You could easily make substitutions or additions, depending what your family likes. There's no going wrong with this one, but here's what I did:

Ingredients

• 3 mild italian sausages
• 1/2 package fresh tortellini
• 10 stalks of asparagus, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 medium onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 5 cups chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Pan-fry the sausage until cooked. Let cool and cut into bite sized pieces. Set aside.
• In a large pot, melt the butter and sauted the onion and garlic. Cook until onions are transluscent.
• Add the diced tomatoes, white wine, chicken stock and tomato paste. Stir and let simmer for 20 minutes.
• Add the tortellini, sausage and asparagus and let simmer until tortellini is cooked.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• If desired, top with shredded cheese and serve with crusty bread.