This recipe comes from my dear friend Edward’s mom and is your go-to recipe for cooking with men (boys). For our cooking date, I was gently steered towards not picking “any of that vegan stuff.” I must say it was a great choice for a cold night.

I especially appreciate cooking with people who find garlic to be as necessary of an influence on dishes as I do. While I wouldn’t suggest a high garlic factor recipe for a real date, in this case it was absolutely appropo. This recipe is great for a quick meal and involves little complication (you can’t mess it up that easily 🙂 )

Italian Sausage, Spinach, Tortellini Soup

serves 1 tall slightly Italian 20 something and 1 food blogger or 4 average eaters generously

2 (9 oz) packages of refrigerated cheese tortellini

3/4 lb sweet or hot Italian sausage

1 (14.5 oz) can of chicken broth (low sodium)

4 cups water

1 (10 oz) bag of frozen spinach, unthawed

1 (28 oz) can of Italian peeled tomatoes (can be chopped or whole)

1 can Ro-tel tomatoes

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 TBS italian seasoning (we used a combo of dried basil and oregano)

1. In a large dutch oven or soup pot, drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil and heat pan to medium. Break the sausages out of their casing and brown the sausage meat until slightly brown, breaking up the sausage with the back of your spoon.

2. Add chicken broth and water and bring to a boil.

IMG 3187 from thereshegoes35 on Vimeo.

Look at that stirring form, what a natural chef. We had a pump up playlist for this soup, naturally. Actually I think we just replayed the song in the vid over and over again. Oldie but a GOODIE.

3. Add spinach, seasonings, garlic, and both kinds of tomatoes, then bring to a boil for another 10 minutes.

4. Add in your tortellini and cook until pasta is cooked, about another 10-12 minutes.

5. Serve with parmesan if you have it and some vino.