The Deets:

This soup can be made in a dutch oven, large pot, slow cooker, or Instant Pot- you choose!

I like making this particular soup in a dutch oven, but if you are pressed for time, and Instant Pot will always get the job done.

Ingredients:

• country sausage: using sausage for this soup will give you the most flavor. I usally use country sausage that I get from a local butcher shop, but you can also use hot italian sausage, ground beef or ground turkey.
• carrots
• celery 
• onions
• pepper
• salt 
• italian stewed tomatoes 
• vegetable broth 
• fire roasted tomatoes 
• great northern beans: navy beans or white beans 
• kidney beans: light or dark- it’s a personal preference
• tomato paste
• italian seasoning 
• paprika 
• minced garlic 
• worchestire sauce 
• DITALINI noodles
• spinach

The Prep:

This soup can be made in a dutch oven (what I use), large pot, Instant Pot or slow cooker. A dutch oven really allows time for all of the  flavors to pull together, so that’s why I like to use it for this soup. 

I will provide tips on different cooking methods bellow.

• Add the carrots, celery and onions into a large pot or dutch oven with 2 tbsp of olive oil and cook for 5 minutes over medium-high heat.
  • Instant Pot: just use the sautee mode and follow the next steps.
  • Slow cooker: add meat first and smash the ground beef with a meat/potato masher to break up and then add the veggies, seasoning, tomato sauce, worchestire sauce and broth. Place on low for 6 hours. At 4 hours add 3/4 cup of noodles and continue to cook for the remaining two hours.
• Add 1 lb of country or hot italian sausage to the veggies with 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper, continue to cook until the sausage is browned.
• While the sausage is browning- open up all of your cans. No need to drain any of them, we want all of the liquid to be incorporated into our soup.
• Take the italian stewed tomatoes and blend them in an emulsifier or bullet for just a few seconds or until they become more of a tomato sauce, rather than whole tomatoes. If you do not have and emulsifer, just use a can of tomato sauce with garlic and basil in place of the italian stewed tomatoes.
• When the sausage is done cooking, start adding in all of the canned items, seasoning, remaining 1/2 tsp of black pepper and worchestire sauce (save the noodles and spinach for the very end). Let the soup come to a light boil, turn down the heat to a medium setting, cover and continue to cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Instant Pot: add all of the ingredients (including the noodles) and turn the Instant Pot of the soup setting for 15 mins. Allow the Insant Pot to slow release and let the soup sit for as long as possible, even if it’s a few hours. The longer it sits, the better.
• After the soup has cooked for at least 30 minutes, add the noodles and continue to cook for another 12 minutes.
• When the noodles are done, add the spinach and turn off the heat or continue to cook on a low setting until ready to serve.
• I like to let the soup sit for a few hour before serving- just to let all of those flavors really come together, but you can serve immediately.
• Top with grated parmesan cheese (+ grilled cheese sandwiches) and serve!
• Store in a tupperware container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.