The M Cave Cookbook

Busy Day Soup (Italian-Style With Vegetables and Sausage)

INGREDIENTS

Smoked Chicken Sausage fully-cooked, cut into ¼" pieces. You could also use Italian Sausage (uncooked)

• ¼ cup dried minced onion (or 1 small onion diced)

• 2 teaspoons minced garlic

• 2 cartons of vegetable broth 32 oz.

• 1 can petite diced tomatoes

• 2 tablespoons dry white wine optional

• 1 tablespoon sugar

• 1 ½ tablespoons Italian seasoning

• 1 teaspoon salt

• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

• ½ cup Ditalini or other small pastas

• 2 packages 10 oz each of Frozen Spring Vegetables (carrots, asparagus, yellow squash, onions, zucchini and red peppers, peppercorns) or another similar frozen vegetable mix of your choice

• Grated parmesan cheese

• Chopped parsley (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Warm the olive oil in a large pot. Then add the onion, garlic and sausage. If using uncooked sausage, remove the casing and then brown the sausage. If using fully-cooked smoked chicken sausage (like kielbasa), then just sauté a few minutes.

• Stir in the Italian seasoning until the spices become fragrant. Add vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, wine (optional), sugar, salt and pepper. Bring mixture to a boil.

• Add the frozen vegetables to the boiling mixture. When it starts to boil again, lower the temperature so that your soup is simmering (not too low).

• Add the Ditalini pasta and continue simmering until the pasta is al dente.

Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with grated parmesan cheese and fresh chopped parsley (if desired).