One of my mom's friends and I were talking and she was reminiscing about going out to eat during the pandemic. One of her favorite soups is Bertucci's Sausage Soup, which I had never actually tried. She told me the flavors, and what she remembered about it, and I told her I would make a version of it. I looked around online to see what the ingredients listed were, and I came up with this recipe.
I decided to up the flavor a little bit and did a short smoke on some mild Italian sausage. After smoking it I went into the process of creating the base of the soup, keeping the spinach and rice out until pick up for texture and color. The final product turned out to be a well balanced soup thickened with a touch of roux and mozzarella with a solid undertone of smoke and spice.
If you don't have a smoker, or don't feel like smoking in your kitchen you can still make the recipe, just omit the smoking aspect (purely optional but it really added an amazing flavor to the soup). Enjoy.
Ingredients
Mild Italian Sausage 1 1/2-2 lbs
Onion, julienned 3 ea
Butter 6T
Garlic, peeled and sliced 1 medium sized head
Crushed Red Pepper 2 tsp
Avenue Spice 1 T
Mustard Powder 1 tsp
Chicken Stock 2 qt
Water 2 qt
Cream Cheese, softened 8 oz
Mozzarella, grated 12 oz
Spinach, baby 2 lb
Rice 2 cups
Roux 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Garnish
Cracked Black Pepper
Method of Procedure
Saute your garlic with crushed red pepper and 2 T of butter until softened.
Add your julienned onions, mustard powder, Avenue spice and the rest of your butter then continue to cook while stirring until the onions are soft.
If you are using a smoker, short smoke the sausage for about 45 minutes to impart flavor.
Sear the sausage in a saute pan (or grill it) and add some chicken broth to cook it part of the way through. Remove from heat and chill, reserving the stock for the soup.*
Dice the sausage into chunks and add them to the onion mixture continuing to cook while stirring.
Add your chicken stock and water then bring to a simmer.
Using a separate pan add your roux slowly incorporate some of the broth to it.
Once the roux has had the broth incorporated pour into the rest of the soup through a strainer.**
Grate your mozzarella then add it and the softened cream cheese to the soup and stir with a whisk to ensure the cheese melts into the soup. Make sure the soup is not on high heat, as that will burn the soup and ruin the flavor.
Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper
Cook your two cups of rice separately and blanch off your spinach.
To serve add rice and spinach to the soup, season to taste and garnish with fresh cracked black pepper***
*The purpose of this is to firm up the sausage in the casing so that you can cut it without it falling apart. If you decide to go the grill route you could cook it a little more, while you smoke it.
**Though you can add the roux directly to the soup, by adding it in this manner you remove possible lumps of roux in the end of the soup.
***When using rice or spinach you want to add them to the soup right before you eat it rather than before as the rice will lose it's texture, and the spinach will become a pale yellow and make the soup go bad quicker.
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