#16 Pizza Soup

Went a little crazy with the cheese!

Love pizza, always have.  That is true for my husband as well.  We won’t apologize for it.

Friday night was always Pizza Night when I was growing up.   Mom always made her own pizza crusts.   (If you’re interested, you can read more about our “Pizza Nights.”)   It was rare for us to ever go out for pizza and there was absolutely no pizza delivery to the farm.   That was alright because mom’s homemade pizza was the best.

My husband’s favorite pizza came from My Pi (which is no longer in existence here).  When I first made homemade pizza for him, he ate it politely, but then he carefully gave me enough constructive criticism to duplicate his favorite My Pi. 

Unfortunately, for most of the year our Friday nights are taken up with my work, but I still try to make at least one evening a month Pizza Night at our house. 

So, as we are on this soup challenge, it would be cheating to make a pizza for dinner.  But, as I did with our favorite enchilada recipe, I will turn our favorite pizza toppings into soup.

Pizza Soup

1 lb. Italian Sausage (The family farm where we buy our meat makes their own Italian sausages and bratwursts.)
2 T. olive oil
1 large chopped red onion
1 large diced green bell pepper
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 c. red wine
1 (28 oz size) can diced tomatoes, undrained
(or about 2 pints of home-canned tomatoes—if using home-canned, you may want to chop them before adding.)
2 c. beef stock
1 cup water
1 1/2 c. ditalini or other small pasta
1 tablespoon dried Italian seasoning*
favorite pizza cheese, shredded

Crumble and brown sausage in a skillet.  Drain on paper towels and set aside. If your sausage is too fatty, place the cooked sausage in a large strainer and run warm water over it.

In a soup pot, heat the olive oil.  Add onions, green peppers, and garlic and sauté about four minutes or until soft.   Add mushrooms and red wine; cook until wine is reduced by half.  Add tomatoes, beef stock, water and Italian seasoning.  Stir.

Add sausage and heat to boiling.  Add pasta.  Reduce to simmer and simmer for 30 minutes. 

*If you have fresh basil, stir in a handful before serving.  I had some frozen pesto that I threw in the last 5 minutes of cooking.

 Top each bowl with a bit of cheese before serving.  Serve with crusty Italian bread (for dipping!)

Serves 6-8.

I have frozen LOTS of our leftover soups so I wish I had halved this recipe. 

No snow is forecast for today; we got another three inches yesterday.  Maybe I can get out of the house today!
Pizza on FoodistaPizza

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