Tuscan Style Ravioli Soup

Here’s to another great day.

This soup is nothing less than a one pot meal. Easy to prepare on the weekend for a quick weekday meal or great for a casual Saturday night dinner. Total time needed is about 2 hours.

Let’s get all of our ingredients together. You are going to need a large sauce pot. I don’t recommend using a stock pot but if that’s all you have no worries. You will need two 16 oz containers of Swanson or other brand chicken stock, 1 cup baby carrots, 1 16 oz can of diced tomatoes, ½ package of Kale, 2 stalks of celery, 1 large onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 pound of loose Italian sausage, and 1 pound of mini frozen ravioli. And of course we need some good Italian seasoning, a bit of olive oil and some good Italian cheese parmesan or romano whichever is your preference.

We can start off by sautéing our onion, carrots, and celery in some olive oil. Just enough for a light coating at the bottom of your sauce pan. Once that’s cooked a bit and your onion in slightly translucent add your kale and garlic for about 5 or minutes then add the diced tomatoes and reduce to a very low simmer. Add to your pot some nice Italian seasoning. Oregano, basil, parsley, about a 2 teaspoons of each, a one bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste.

In a separate frying pan you want to brown your sausage. I like to do this separately to reduce the fat content in the soup. Once the meat is brown go ahead and add that to your vegetable mixture.  Add your chicken stock to your pot and simmer for about ½ hour.

While that is simmering put a pot of water on and boil your ravioli. Make sure you only boil them for a minute or 2. You don’t want them too cooked because you adding them to the soup where they will continue to cook. I like to boil separately so you don’t end up with starchy soup. Unless of course you like that.

Drain your pasta and add it to the soup pot. I like to continue to simmer for at least another half hour to get all the flavor to come together. I like to add about ½ cup of the Italian cheese right to the pot and stir. This gives the soup a really nice finish. For the cheese lovers among us will add more to the bowl.

Serve with some crusty Italian bread.

Make things Easier!

If you want to make this recipe easier and with less clean up follow the same instructions but instead of browning your meet separately you can add it to the pot with your vegetable.

Don’t want to boil you pasta separately add it right into your pot. Make sure you cover and let simmer for at least 30 minutes.

For another day!

This soup also freezes well. You can prepackage for lunches or even another evenings dinner when you have no time to cook. I like to store in Ziploc freezer bags proportioned. Fill your bag to lay flat. That way it increases storage space in the freezer. Make sure you mark with the date and the number of servings. When you’re ready to use it either pop in the microwave or return to a sauce pan and heat slowly.