Italian Sausage Soup

When I cook sausages on the grill, I always simmer them first.  Simmering draws off some of the fat, helping to prevent flare ups while the sausages are cooking over the flame.  There’s a lot of flavour in that simmering liquid so I save it.  I also take care to cook a couple of extra sausages that we can use in another meal.

Leftover grilled Italian sausages and the liquid they simmered in formed the basis for our soup this week.  I didn’t have a recipe for the soup, nor did I write one down as I was working, but here’s how I made it.  If you want to try it too, I’m sure you can judge the amounts of each ingredient based upon your own personal taste.

When I made the soup I used:

• A small onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Tomato paste
• The simmering liquid from the sausages
• A couple of cups of homemade vegetable stock
• Oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 leftover grilled Italian sausages, cut into pieces
• Some leftover cooked carrots, cabbage, and potatoes

I chopped the onion and then minced the cloves of garlic.  After looking at the quantities, I decided to use only half of each.  I sautéed the onion until it was translucent, then added the garlic and about half the can of tomato paste, cooking them for a few seconds as well. 

Next I added the simmering liquid from the sausages, the vegetable stock, some oregano, and the bay leaves.  I let this mixture simmer for a few minutes so that the flavours of the herbs and other ingredients could infuse into the cooking liquid.  While I was waiting, I cut the cooked vegetables up into smaller pieces.

When the broth was hot and the flavours had infused into it, I added the sausages and the cut up vegetables.  Once everything was heated through, I tasted the broth and adjusted the seasoning by adding some salt and pepper. 

Simple, right?  But it was really good!