Rustic Hearty Soup-a tiny taste of tuscany

i was navigating around a new soup that i made today, quite uncertain as what would be the final outcome, but certainly determined to see it to through-that and i kind of had to have something since i had dinner guest coming in less than an hour.

James and Lex were coming over for lunch after church and i had suggested a random idea of soup i had been toying around with in my mind- i was trying to see if i could combine some of the ingredients i already had and perhaps make something tasty out of them?

here were the ingredients i was thinking of using: fresh baby spinach, a roll of ground sausage, and a package of ravioli filled with butternut squash..could i invite all of them to the soup pool? it turns out i could, and i did!

This soup ended up being one of the best soups i have made to date, and i am so proud of it! It was rich a creamy, a deep tomatoey base, along with texture of chopped spinach, large bites of ravioli pillows swimming about, and the sausage takes it to a whole other level. want to know a secret? for my tomato base, instead of actually using real tomatoes [which i only had about a half of one floating around in the fridge] i improvised and used...a jar of pasta sauce! Who knew it would be a great sub for stewed tomatoes and it created that creamy tomato consistency that i had envisioned anyways! i felt preTTy frugal and smarty pants savy...don't worry though, i kept myself in check:) i mentioned before, i was very unsure if it would even work, i wasn't super confident until almost the very end, when i had to taste test a few times to see if it was worth offering to other people..

James was very vocal about the soup
and continued to let me know how much he loved it and proceeded to ladle himself 2 more bowls after the first he slurped down. Lex, who is bit more reserved where food is concerned, she would tell you herself that she is pretty picky and doesn't like a lot of different foods, but she also took the time to encourage me and tell me she loved it. I felt so special and could not believe that this all came together so well.

I had a Christmas dinner party the next day serving 6 guests- we all have agreed to do the soup and salad thing, so i made this soup again where it was well received as it was the first time i made it.:) I hope you try it and like it also. [fingers crossed:)]


here is the recipe:

you'll need:
1 jar of pasta sauce of your choosing [i used a tuscan 4 cheese sauce]
4 cups beef broth
1 pack of ravioli-[again, you can choose, but i used butternut squash filled ones, sometimes i use pumpkin, so many options!]
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspon nutmeg
1 lb of ground Italian sausage
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon roasted garlic cloves* [about 3-5]
4-6 cups of baby spinach, finely chopped
1 tomato, roughly chopped, or 1 can of stewed tomatoes 
1/2 small carton of heavy whipping cream [about 3/4 of a cup]

In a large pan, saute onions and garlic for a few minutes. add chopped tomato, nutmeg, and basil.. when onions are a bit browned and fragrant, toss in large soup pot. pour in beef stock and simmer on low.

in same pan, brown sausage and cook thoroughly, taking care to break it up in smaller pieces. when cooked, add to soup pot.

Add in chopped spinach, and pasta sauce.

let simmer and allow spinach to cook down. Add butternut squash ravioli and drizzle in cream.


continue to stir on simmer until it reaches a consistency you are satisfied with.

serve with tomato basil bread slathered with garlic butter, dunk and slurp away..
oh, and please enjoy!!

**for roasted garlic, i did this ahead of time. simply, take a whole bulb of garlic, cut the pointy top off, to expose the garlic cloves hidden inside. place in a pocket of tinfoil drizzled with a bit of olive oil, and twist to seal. pop in oven at 350 for about 12-15 minutes. allow to cool, then they should pop out of the outer shell rather easily!