Italian Sausage Soup with Tortellini

This is one of my staple recipes. I think I have really perfected it over the years. It is a wonderful mixture of hearty with some heat. 

Ingredients:

•  1 lb zesty hot Italian sausage
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 8 beef bouillon cubes 
• 8 cups water
• 1 cup red wine 
• 1 large can of Italian seasoned diced tomatoes
• 1 cup sliced carrots or carrot chips
• 1 Tb fresh basil
• 1 t dried oregano
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 Tb mixed Italian herb seasoning blend
• 3 Tb fresh chopped parsley
• 1 1/2 cups chopped (into "half moons") zucchini
• 8 oz fresh cheese tortellini 

*do not add any salt. Not needed with salt from sausage and canned tomatoes.

In a large pot or Dutch oven, brown sausage with some evoo. Remove sausage and drain, reserving drippings. Saute onions and garlic in sausage drippings. Stir in water, bouillon, wine, tomatoes, tomato sauce, carrots, badil, oregsno, Italian seasoning blend and sausage. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered 30 minutes. 

Stir in zucchini and parsley. Simmer covered 30 minutes more. Pour into bowls. Add how every many tortellini you want (usually 8 or so) into each bowl immediately.  Make sure they are completely submerged into your individual bowls of soup. Let sit 10 minutes. This is going to cook the pasta while letting your soup cool enough to eat. Also, if you add all of the tortellini to the actual pot of soup, over night in the fridge the pasta will soak up all of your soup's broth, leaving you with just vegetables, sausage and pasta left. No good. 

Top with parmesan cheese if you want. Makes approximately 6-7 full bowls of soup.