A Weekend Craving: Italian Sausage Soup

Are you ready to start drooling?? Go ahead, may the drooling commence, because I have the yummiest soup recipe to share with you guys today. Mmm, mmm, mmm, I can barely even write about it without wanting to smack my lips!

Last weekend I knew that I was in the mood for a good soul-warming soup, so I hopped on myrecipes.com and found this little gem thanks to the folks over at Cooking Light. Oh, I forgot to mention that this soup is also a healthier option?? Double score. Speaking of double, I doubled up the original recipe because I wanted to have lots of leftovers. If you're feeding more than four people, or if you want to get a couple of meals out of this, I'd recommend that you do the same, so that's how I have it listed below.

Here's what you need:

16oz  hot or sweet turkey Italian sausage (I went with hot, but didn't actually find it all that spicy)

4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

two 14.5oz cans of diced tomatoes with basil, garlic & oregano

1 cup uncooked small shell pasta (I used sea shells)

2 cups bagged baby spinach leaves (can use more if you'd like)

2 tablespoons grated fresh Parmesan or Romano cheese (I went with Romano)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Here's what you do:

Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Remove casings from sausage. Add sausage to pan, and cook about ten minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain and then return to pan.

Add broth, tomatoes and pasta to pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or until pasta is done. Remove from heat and stir in spinach until wilted.

Sprinkle each serving with cheese and basil.

ENJOY!

Mendi