This Italian Sausage Minestrone soup bridges the gap between summer and fall. Start your soup season off using the last of some great summer ingredients!
Course Main Course, Soup
Cuisine American, Italian
Keyword Beans, Chickpeas, Feeds a Crowd, Healthy, Italian Sausage, Meal Prep, One Pan Meal, Sausage, Soup, Summer Squash, Tomatoes, Zucchini
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Cook Time 45 minutesminutes
Servings 6
Ingredients
1tbspolive oilor fat of your choice, see note
½mediumoniondiced small
2mediumcarrotspeeled and diced small
1mediumred bell pepperdiced small
2tspkosher saltor more to taste, divided
4clovesgarlicminced
1mediumzucchinidiced medium (1/2 inch chunks)
1mediumsummer squashdiced medium (1/2 inch chunks)
28ozcanned whole tomatoes
4linksItalian sausagecooked and cut into 1/2-inch half moons
1 tbspdried oregano
1tspcrushed red pepper flakesor more to taste
1quartbeef, chicken, or vegetable stock
115 oz canchickpeasdrained, see note
8ozsmall pastacooked al dente, see note
parmesan cheesegrated, to taste
Instructions
Heat a 6-8 quart soup pan over medium high heat. Add the olive oil and let the oil heat up for a minute or two. Then add the onion, carrots, and red bell pepper with 1 tsp of kosher salt. Cook until the vegetables are softened and the onion turns translucent. Add the garlic, zucchini, and summer squash. Cook for another minute or two.
Dump the canned tomatoes in a small bowl and use a potato masher to break up the whole tomatoes into smaller pieces. Add the tomatoes, Italian sausage, oregano, and red pepper flakes to the pot. Stir. Add the stock and drained chickpeas with the second tsp of salt. Stir.
Bring to a boil and then reduce to a low simmer. Cook, covered, for 45-minutes to an hour stirring occasionally. The long simmer will break down the vegetables and soften the chickpeas--and the starch in the beans will help thicken the soup just a bit.
Taste the soup and add more salt if needed. Add ~1/2 cup pasta to a bowl with a couple of large ladles of soup. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, if desired.
Notes
Olive oil works perfectly well here but if you have something in the fridge with more flavor, like bacon fat or beef tallow, it will add an extra depth of flavor to the soup. I recently used some beef tallow rendered from homemade beef stock and it was a wildly delicious addition to this soup.
Use any canned bean you have available in your pantry. I like the chickpeas but red kidney beans or cannelloni beans would also work well here.
Pasta is optional but certainly welcome. This is a pretty hearty soup without the pasta.
Use any small pasta you have on hand: small shells, ditalini, elbows, or acini di pepe work really well for this soup.
If you're storing leftover soup, keep the pasta and soup separate so that the pasta doesn't absorb all of the broth.