Description
Italian sausage is browned with onions and garlic and then beef broth, tortellini, tomatoes, green peppers and zucchini are simmered together to produce a soup with ultimate flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground Italian sausage (mild or hot, it’s up to you)*
- 1 medium yellow or white onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 6 cups water
- 1 Tbsp Better Than Bouillon Beef Base
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 (14 oz) can petite diced tomatoes, with juice
- 2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 large carrot, grated or sliced into quarter inch rounds
- 1 (10 oz) package frozen or fresh cheese tortellini**
- 1 medium green pepper, diced
- 1 medium zucchini, diced
Instructions
- Heat your Instant Pot by pressing the saute button and adjusting it to the hottest setting. Add in your Italian sausage and break it up with a wooden spoon. Brown the sausage and drain off any excess grease. Add in the chopped onion and the minced garlic. Saute for a few minutes until the onion is translucent.
- Add in the water, bouillon, bay leaf, tomatoes, tomato sauce, basil, oregano, carrot and tortellini. Turn the saute function off and press the manual button to pressure cook on high. Set the timer to 1 minute. Make sure the valve is set to “sealing.” It will take a few minutes for the pot to come to pressure. Once the timer beeps release the pressure by moving the valve to “venting.” Cover the vent by placing a dish rag over the top. The steam will escape for about 5 minutes. Remove the lid when the pot will allow you to.
- Stir in the diced green pepper and the zucchini. Turn the pot to the saute function and let the zucchini get tender for about 5 minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaf.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and serve!
Notes
*You can also make this soup with Italian Style Meatballs as shown in the video above. We used a 20 oz bag of Italian-style meatballs.
**I’ve made this soup with dried tortellini as well. I personally prefer the convenience and taste of frozen tortellini.
Get the SLOW COOKER version of the recipe here
For Instant Pot Italian Tortellini Soup I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1.
Italian sausage: I use mild ground Italian sausage but you can use hot Italian sausage if you like more kick.
Canned tomatoes: I like to use petite diced tomatoes because the tomatoes are cut smaller. You could probably use fresh tomatoes with this recipe. It would be about 2 cups chopped, seeded tomatoes.
Better than Bouillon Beef Base: I love using Better than Bouillon because it makes a delicious base for soups. It also keeps for a long time in my fridge. You can substitute with beef broth in a can or carton, if you prefer. Just use 5 cups broth and 1 cup water.
Carrots: I ended up using my handy dandy grater to grate my carrots but you can chop them or slice them however you like.
Zucchini: I cut my zucchini into cubes but you can also cut them into rounds
Tortellini: I usually use a package of frozen cheese tortellini for this recipe. They taste great and are available at most grocery stores. You can also use fresh tortellini. Dried tortellini (next to the dry pastas) don’t taste as good and in my opinion sort of ruin the soup. I would suggest not using dry tortellini.
- Category: Soup
- Method: Instant Pot