Hearty Italian Soup

 

With cold temperatures and snow flurries today was another perfect day for a bowl of hot soup with cornbread.

 

Here is my adaptation of the recipe from Southern Living Magazine, October 2011 issue.

This is the recipe from Southern Living.
Ingredients:
1 (16 oz.) package mild Italian Sausage
2 tsp. olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (48 oz.) container chicken broth
2 (15 oz.) cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 (14.5 oz.) cans diced tomatoes
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
1 (5 oz.) package baby spinach
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1. Cook sausage in hot oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat 7 to 8 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove sausage from Dutch oven, reserving drippings in Dutch oven.
Saute onion in hot drippings 3 minutes or until tender. Add garlic, and saute 1 minute. Cut sausage into 1/4 inch thick slices and return to Dutch oven.

Today's adaptation:
(Today I removed the casings from the sausage and broke up the pieces until browned. I added the diced onion to the sausage and then the garlic. (I used minced garlic from a jar.)  I used dried parsley and basil. As there were only three of us for dinner I halved the recipe.)

2. Stir chicken broth and next 3 ingredients into sausage mixture; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 25 minutes.

3. Stir in spinach and next 2 ingredients; cook, stirring occasionally, 5 to 6 minutes or until spinach is wilted. Top each serving with Parmesan cheese.

When the soup was almost finished simmering I put a pan of cornbread in the oven.
 

Now, doesn't this look pretty? Almost ready.

Here is the golden brown cornbread ready for the butter.
We ate it with butter and pineapple jelly tonight. Yum!
I'll share the cornbread recipe in a later post.

Enjoy!

One of my Shamrock plants served as the centerpiece.

♥andPeace,Myra