Hi guys! I hope you’re all well. Here in Green Bay, we’re under a blizzard warning until Monday morning. Give me a good blizzard in December or January, but not in April. This morning, I blew out my driveway, and we had so much snow that it took me two and a half hours and I was only able to blow out about 75% of if before I had to stop. Thankfully the neighbor on the other half of the duplex was able to move his truck from his part of the driveway and finish it. 

With the crappy weather this weekend, I actually planned ahead what I was going to make and went to the grocery store last night after work. I decided that I was going make some soup and also do a little meal prep for the upcoming week and make some extra to freeze. I have to start adding food to my freezer I received for Christmas this year.

Today I’m sharing with you my recipe for creamy tortellini soup. I found the recipe last year over at Give Me Some Oven, and I really love it. I made some slight modifications.

Ingredients

• 1.25 pounds ground Italian sausage
• 1 medium shallot, peeled and diced
• 4 large carrots, peeled and diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 5 cups chicken stock (I used either low sodium or no sodium)
• 1 (10-ounce) package refrigerated cheese tortellini (or your favorite flavor)
• 2 cups heavy cream
• Italian seasoning to taste

Instructions

I grabbed my handy Cuisinart 7.5 quart Dutch oven. I love using cast iron Dutch oven to make soups and stews. I heated the Dutch oven and then added the Italian sausage to brown it. The first time I made this, I used hot Italian sausage. This time, I used mild Italian sausage. It was the only option available when I went to the store on Friday. I would recommend to use the hot Italian sausage. It really adds an extra kick to the soup.

While the Italian sausage was cooking, I set about to chop up the carrots and the shallots. I’m not a fan of onions. I hate raw onions and big chunks of onions in food, I prefer to use shallots. When I do cook with onions or shallots, I will chop them up real fine, and cook them down to get the flavor. That way the onions themselves are easily blended into the rest of the food.

When the Italian sausage was done cooking, I removed the sausage from the Dutch oven, and set it on a paper towel to soak up the excess oil/fat. I then added the carrots and shallots and cooked for about five to six minutes. Next I added a tablespoon of minced garlic. I cooked the carrots, shallots, and garlic for another two minutes.

After the 2 minutes were up, I added 1/4 cup flour and slowly added the chicken stock, making sure to whisk as I added the chicken stock.

I let the stock and veggies simmer for about 10 minutes. Then I added the Italian sausage back into the pot, along with the 2 cups of heavy cream, the tortellini, and the Italian seasoning. I let the pot simmer on the stove for another five to six minutes, until the tortellini was cooked.

The soup was perfect for this snowy weekend. If you’re stuck in this crappy weather, I hope your safe. If you are where the weather is nicer out, I hope you’re enjoying the weather! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we don’t get much more snow, but I’m afraid that more’s coming tonight.