The BEST Sausage Tortellini Soup

Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 6 servings

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This Sausage Tortellini Soup is a tomato-based soup loaded with vegetables, Italian sausage and cheese tortellini. It’s the perfect cold weather soup and freezer friendly!

Got extra Italian sausage? Try my Italian Sausage Soup, this cozy Orecchiette Pasta with Sausage or this hearty Italian Sausage Gnocchi Soup!

close up overhead image of tortellini soup with sausage in tomato broth.

This Sausage Tortellini Soup is the ultimate comfort food!

It’s big on flavor, thick and chunky, loaded with vegetables and tender cheese tortellini. Just don’t forget the crusty bread! (Or make a loaf of Cheesy Garlic Bread for Cheddar Bay Biscuits for dunking).

What we love about this Sausage Tortellini Soup:

  • It’s hearty and filling — it really is a meal in one pot!
  • It’s big on flavor – thanks to Italian sausage.
  • It’s a well-rounded meal — with carbs, protein and veggies all in one pot.
  • It’s made in one pot, which means less to scrub!

You can even make a big batch and stick some in the freezer — just leave out the tortellini until you’re serving it.

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Ingredients Needed:

ingredients needed in sausage tortellini soup.
  • Italian sausage: you can use mild or spicy sausage here depending on your tastes! Italian turkey sausage also works well.
  • Carrots, onion, celery: a classic mirepoix which is the base for many soup recipes. I don’t recommend substituting any of these ingredients unless you have to!
  • Italian seasoning, garlic, salt: I kept my seasonings simple because the sausage adds so much flavor! Feel free to add or experiment as you like.
  • Chicken broth: I always start with low sodium chicken broth and add salt as needed. If you start with salted broth, you may not need to add as much salt.
  • Diced tomatoes and tomato sauce: Diced tomatoes add texture but you can swap them for crushed tomatoes if you prefer. Choose any marinara or tomato sauce that you enjoy — it will thicken the soup slightly and add lots of tomato flavor!
  • Cheese tortellini: fresh or frozen works just fine here! You could substitute with another cheese-filled pasta if you prefer.

How to make Sausage Tortellini Soup:

This soup is easily made in one pot! Here is a brief overview with step by step photos. Find the complete recipe down in the recipe card.

cooked ground italian sausage in soup pot.
Cook Italian sausage.
vegetables and seasonings added to italian sausage.
Add vegetables and cook, then add seasonings.

Start by cooking the Italian sausage to brown it — don’t drain the fat since this will help to cook the veggies!

Add the vegetables and cook until crisp-tender, then stir in the garlic and seasonings to toast.

broth and tomatoes added to tortellini soup.
Add liquids and bring to a simmer.
tortellini added to sausage tortellini soup.
Stir in tortellini.

Add the liquids and bring to a simmer, cooking vegetables until tender.

Stir in tortellini and cook just until al dente.

Tips and Tricks for Making this Sausage Tortellini Soup:

  • Hot Italian sausage can be very spicy, so be sure to use mild if you prefer a milder flavor. I didn’t add a lot of extra spices to the soup because the sausage gives so much flavor.
  • You can use fresh or frozen tortellini to make this soup. I use fresh, so just take into account the required cook time for the pasta when making your soup. Frozen tortellini may cool down your soup and take longer to come back up to a simmer.
  • If you have a leftover Parmesan rind, feel free to throw that in the soup as it simmers for some incredible flavor!
  • You can prep this soup ahead by chopping all of your vegetables. You can also cook the soup right through up until the point where you add the pasta, then cool and refrigerate and simply reheat and add the pasta before serving.
sausage tortellini soup in large grey dutch oven.

How to freeze this soup:

This soup can definitely be frozen! Keep in mind that pasta gets soft after being frozen, so if that’s not your thing then you may want to leave the pasta out until you’re ready to serve.

To freeze, simply cool to room temperature, then place in a large freezer bag or freezer container. I prefer to use freezer bags because they can be frozen flat and thaw out quickly in some lukewarm water.

Variations on this Sausage Tortellini Soup:

  • To make this Sausage Tortellini Soup dairy-free, omit the cheese tortellini and substitute regular pasta, and be sure to double check all of your ingredients.
  • To make this soup gluten-free, omit the pasta and substitute gluten-free pasta or gluten-free tortellini if available.
  • You can certainly add more veggies or swap mine out for the ones your family prefers: peppers, mushrooms, or zucchini would also be great in here!
  • To make this soup even leaner, choose Italian turkey sausage instead of regular pork sausage.
overhead image of a bowl of sausage tortellini soup on blue background.
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The BEST Sausage Tortellini Soup

4.99 from 174 votes
This Sausage Tortellini Soup is a tomato-based soup loaded with vegetables, Italian sausage and cheese tortellini. It’s the perfect cold weather soup and freezer friendly! 
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Cuisine American
Course Soup
Servings 6 servings
Calories 446cal

Ingredients

  • 1 lb Italian sausage mild or spicy (no casings)
  • 3 large carrots peeled and diced
  • 1 onion finely diced
  • 1 rib celery finely chopped
  • teaspoons Italian seasoning
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • teaspoon black pepper
  • 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
  • 1 798 ml can diced tomatoes (28oz)
  • 1 cup marinara sauce
  • 250 grams fresh cheese tortellini about 3 cups
  • 2 cups fresh chopped spinach (optional)
  • Parmesan and parsley for garnish (optional)

Instructions

  • Add Italian sausage to a large soup pot and cook over medium-high heat until browned. Drain any excess fat.
  • Add carrots, onion and celery. Cook and stir until onion has softened.
  • Add Italian seasoning, garlic, salt and pepper and cook 1 minute.
  • Add broth, tomatoes and tomato sauce and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes, until carrots are almost tender.
  • Stir in tortellini. Cover and simmer for 5-6 minutes until tender. Stir in spinach if using and serve.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 446cal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 21g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 73mg | Sodium: 1386mg | Potassium: 622mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 6249IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 120mg | Iron: 3mg
Keywords italian sausage soup, italian sausage tortellini, tortellini soup

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Meet Ashley

My name is Ashley Fehr and I love creating easy meals my family loves. I also like to do things my way, which means improvising and breaking the rules when necessary. Here you will find creative twists on old favorites and some of my favorite family recipes, passed down from generations!

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Comments

  1. Lauri says

    I just made this soup and it turned out great with a couple of changes. I used Campbells Chicken Broth and omitted the extra salt. I omitted the garlic because I’m not a fan of garlic. I added extra oregano and 2 tbs. of sugar to cut the acid from the tomatoes. Turned out great!

  2. Rachel says

    This recipe is fabulous! I didn’t have Italian seasoning, so I just threw in some basil, oregano, rosemary, and thyme, as well as some red pepper and a couple of cloves of minced garlic. I was also low on tortellini, so I added half a package of gnocchi as well. My husband, sister, and myself all loved it! My sister even requested the recipe!

  3. John Rowan says

    Added a cup of dry red wine during the deglazing process, substituted beef stock instead of chicken stock, and added two cups of coarsely chopped zucchini that I had in the freezer. Fantastic!

  4. Mary-Ann Maneri says

    Ashley loved the recipe didnโ€™t have enough grease to discard after frying the sausage. Increased the chicken broth to 32 oz. Didnโ€™t want to waste the extra broth in the box container. Soup was delish!

  5. Juanita says

    This is a recipe that always turns out great. The first time I made according to the recipe I freeze half before adding the Fresh veggies and tortellini. I have even subbed cheese and spinach ravioli when I did not have tortellini.
    We have even used it as a Sausage and veggie soup with out any pasta when I have an abundance of veggies left in the vegetable drawer.

  6. Lori says

    This soup was delicious! It is also easy to make and I have filed it in my “favorites”. ๐Ÿ™‚ I did add more broth than stated in the recipe to make it a little bit soupier and so it would go farther because it is quite hearty. Other than that, I wouldn’t change anything. Thank you. ๐Ÿ™‚

  7. Brett says

    Okay. I just sat down to a bowl of this soup. I’m literally eating it as I type. I followed the directions to a “T” except for one thing. I added a thinly sliced single jalapeno to the recipe because we like spicy in this house. It is sublime. It has everything you could want in a January comfort soup. It’s hearty, it’s easy to make, and it’s easy to make it your own however you might like. The single jalapeno I added didn’t seem to affect the soup in any negative way. Rather, it added to the overall flavor profile. The recipe is perfect as is but its so customizable that I can see tweaking this thing ad-infinitum. Enjoy!

  8. Dennis says

    Used a 28 oz can of Rotel instead of tomatoes, the only change I made. Next time will use potatoes instead of the Tortellini and peppers instead of carrots. As written this is a good soup that will be in our rotation

  9. Emily says

    Delicious!! I doubled the sausage, added portobello mushrooms cause I had some in the fridge. I added cream cheese before the pasta, which helped cut the acidity for my
    Husband. I tried it before I added the cream cheese and it had wonderful flavor! Husband approved, he gobbled it down!!

    • Stephen says

      You can also use a little baking soda for the same acid cutting property thatโ€™s what I do in our red sauces!!

  10. Zach says

    Loved it, I doubled the ravioli just because the 250g pack was 5$ and a 500g pack was 6$ and it was fine. I didn’t drain the fat either because it was in my Dutch oven and I didn’t feel like it, turned out fine. Also you can save this recipe without subscribing by clicking print and then saving as a PDF.

  11. Lynn says

    Wow! This soup is deeee-licious! Restaurant quality. So easy to make but the flavours are perfect. It could also be made with small shell pasta if someone doesnโ€™t care for tortellini. So comforting on a chilly day. Definitely a keeper!

  12. Carol Kunberger says

    I added a package of taco mix and a packet of water and it turned out wonderful. Husband loved itโ€ฆ. Yeah!

4.99 from 174 votes (108 ratings without comment)

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