Jo's Italian Soup
Many thanks to my wife, Jo Lynn, for providing one of her recipes for the newsletters.
Italian Soup
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 chopped Vidalia sweet onion
¾ cup chopped carrot
¾ cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 pound hot Italian sausage
2 cans petite diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 bay leaves
1 quart chicken stock
1 can cannellini beans
⅔ cup uncooked orzo pasta
Salt and pepper to taste
Shredded Parmesan cheese for serving
In a stock pot, heat the olive oil and sauté the onion, carrot and celery for about 4 minutes or until softened. Add the garlic and cook for about one minute. Crumble the Italian sausage into the pot and continue cooking the mixture until the sausage is no longer pink. Add the cans of tomatoes and, using a potato masher, crush the tomatoes. Sprinkle the Italian seasoning and the red pepper flakes over the ingredients in the pot and stir. Add the bay leaves and chicken stock. Stir the mixture together and then bring it to a boil and let it simmer covered for about an hour. Remove the bay leaves from the pot and discard. Add the cannellini beans and the uncooked orzo to the pot. Continue simmering the soup until the orzo is tender. Salt and pepper the soup to taste. Serve the soup with the Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.
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