This recipe is courtesy of our family friend from Houston, Bebe Stegent. It is a minestrone soup with Italian sausage. I must disclose that it takes a long time to make, and you must follow the directions without taking a shortcut. But, it is not hard to make in the least. It is a delicious soup that’s so worth the time!
Minestrone soup — YUM!
- 1 lb Italian sweet/mild sausage
- 1 lb Italian hot sausage
- 3 TBL olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 large garlic cloves minced
- 1 bunch carrots, diced
- 4 TBL fresh basil, chopped
- 2-3 zucchini, diced
- 1 28oz can Italian Style tomatoes including liquid
- 2 cans beef broth or beef cooking stock
- 2 beef bouillon cubes and add water (the 28oz. tomato can full of water)
- 1 small head of green cabbage, chopped
- Lawry's seasoned salt
- Pepper
- 1 16 oz can cannellini beans and liquid
- 1 16oz can red kidney beans and liquid
- Place sausages on a rimmed baking sheet or a pyrex baking dish and bake at 375 degrees for one hour (turn sausages half-way through cooking time).
- While sausages are cooking, start chopping all your vegetables and opening your cans.
- Let sausages cool and chop them into bite size pieces.
- In a large stock pot, heat 3 TBL of olive oil over medium high heat.
- Brown the chopped sausage in the olive oil for just a couple minutes.
- Add onion, garlic, carrots and basil. Cook until onions are soft.
- Add zucchini, tomatoes from can, beef broth, boullion cubes and water, cabbage, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer one hour.
- Add beans with their liquid, and cook an additional 30 minutes.
- Serve with parmesean cheese and crusty bread.
- Freezes well.
Here’s the play by play in photos for those of you that are visual learners like me.
Raw sausage links ready to get roasted. Be sure to roast them on aluminum foil for easy clean-up.
No, they are not burned. They are roasted.
While the sausages are roasting, get busy chopping up all the veggies.
Cool sausages and chop roughly. This is going to make your soup so happy.
First round in the pot: sausages, onion, basil, carrots, and garlic.
Now, everything else in the pot. Get a BIG pot. This will cook down substantially.
What it looks like after adding the beans and cooking a total of 1.5 hours.
Bon Appetit!
