Chunky Sausage Tomato Soup

Posted on by Casey

First off, I want to apologize – I experienced some odd camera malfunctioning (probably user error) last week and ended up losing the “in process” photos of about three or four different recipes.  I still managed to get pictures of the finished dish (or the leftovers when I had them for lunch the next day) because I also used a second camera for those.  So, unfortunately, we will have a few recipes here in the coming week that won’t have any photos of the steps or starting ingredients.  I may improvise a bit with some stock photos if I can find them…

This recipe is a quick and easy variation on basic spaghetti sauce, but made a little more “soup-like” and served on it’s own.  It’s great for when you want a hearty lunch or quick dinner and haven’t planned ahead enough to have anything special thawed or marinated.

Our CSA share last week

Gather Up:

  • 1-1/2 to 2 lbs mild Italian sausage in casings (about six large links)
  • 2 or 3 small baby summer squash, sliced (from our CSA share)
  • 4 to 6 large mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 cup black olives, sliced
  • 2 bunches fresh basil, rolled and sliced across thinly (also from our CSA share) – about 3 tbsp
  • 3 scallions, chopped (again, from the CSA share)
  • 1 quart home-canned tomatoes (use two cans of stewed tomatoes if you don’t have home-canned), with about half the liquid
  • 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
  • 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste

If you have sausages that are right out of the freezer (like we did), boil them in a large sauce pan with enough water to cover until they are fully cooked – about 15 minutes.  If they are fresh, you can still boil them – but don’t need to go as long.  When done, remove the sausages and discard the water.  Slice the sausages across into pieces about one inch long.

Put the sausage pieces back into the sauce pan, along with all of the other ingredients.  Place over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for about twenty minutes until the mushrooms and summer squash are tender.  Serve warm, with a little more chopped fresh basil on top.

Published by Casey