This is a super simple, one-pot, soup with pasta and Italian sausage that’s packed with flavour and eats like a meal! The star of the show is Italian sausage which brings a ton of flavour all by itself. This soup is filled out with pasta which is cooked in the soup, making for an easy one-pot meal. Seasonings include onions, garlic, fennel, and Italian herbs, along with some red pepper flakes for even more heat. In addition to all of the flavour that’s already packed in, the broth is a base of chicken broth with tomatoes and it’s made nice and creamy, and oh so good, with cream, cream cheese and plenty of parmesan cheese! There is something that’s just magical about the flavour combo of Italian sausage and tomatoes in a creamy parmesan broth! This soup is the perfect comfort food for cool winter days!
Creamy Parmesan Italian Sausage Soup
A tasty Italian sausage and pasta soup with a creamy parmesan and tomato broth!
ingredients
- 1 pound Italian sausage, casings removed
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon ground fennel (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can petite diced tomatoes
- 8 ounces pasta such as ditalini (gluten-free for gluten-free)
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano (parmesan), grated
- 4 ounces cream cheese (warmed)
- 1/2 cup heavy/whipping cream
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped (optional)
directions
- Cook the sausage and onion in a large saucepan until cooked, breaking the sausage apart as it cooks, before draining any excess grease.
- Add the garlic, fennel, and red pepper flakes, mix, and cook until fragrant, about a minute.
- Add the broth, tomatoes, pasta, and Italian seasoning, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the pasta is cooked, al-dente, about 6-8 minutes.
- Add the parmesan, cream cheese, and cream, and let the cheeses melt into the soup, about 3-5 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste, mix in the parsley and enjoy!
Option: Add 1-2 tablespoons cornstarch (mixed into 2 tablespoons cool water) to the soup near the end and simmer to thicken.
Option: Omit the pasta; also remove 1 cup chicken broth.
Option: Add 1/2 cup roasted red peppers, diced!
Option: Add 2 tablespoons of sliced basil just before serving!
Option: Garnish with more parmesan!
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Kevin! You are the best!! I look forward to your recipes every day and have made most of them. Thank you for posting every day. You add sunshine to my day!
Made this tonight and it was delish!! Followed recipe, used no salt tomatoes and no salt broth.
This soup is outstanding! My husband doesn’t really enjoy soup, but I thought I’d give it a try because he loves Italian sausage and Parmesan cheese. He loved it! It was easy to make and very flavorful! I used 2% milk because I try to save the heavy cream for holidays. I just found your blog and am loving it! I made the Hawaiian Meatballs last week and they were a hit with my husband, too! Thank you very much!,
Yummy would recommend..Thank you
Excellent recipe! Cut in half since only 2 of us were eating it. Used spicy sausage and rotel for the tomatoes. Delish!
Another winner! Such delicious soup. I would add the pasta sparingly if you plan on keeping soup for leftovers. The pasta soaks up most of the broth.
Made this my parmesan rind soup of the month. if you dont do something fun with your rinds you are missing out on easily 30% of the value of using whole parmesan in your day to day! The bonus is when you use the rind in something like this take it to the next level! I also used fresh tomatoes instead of canned and a bulb of fennel cut thin and added to onion sausage for about the last 5 minutes. Prego!
Can you freeze this soup cause it has whipping cream in it?
This soup freezes well!
I never leave reviews, but I prepped this for dinner tonight (it’s 3pm) and I literally can’t stop eating it. I’m a huge soup lover and this is my new favorite hands down! I made it just as written. Thanks for the great recipe!
Olive Garden doesn’t have anything on whoever makes this lol. I think it needs a little more broth but other than that it is soooo good. The taste is delicious!
This was SO GOOD! Even my 1 year old and 3 year old devoured it. It would also be great with extra broth, spinach or kale.
this soup is delicious!!!! I didn’t do pasta it’s going to my brother and sister in law (my bff) who I’m visiting tomorrow I added fresh spinach and I used Hot sausage. this is a keeper
This soup is fantastic!! I’ve made it twice now, and it’s definitely a keeper! Great flavor! Even my picky eaters enjoyed it! Thanks for the great recipe!!
Made this tonight for dinner and my whole family loved it, even my picky eater asked for seconds!
My 96 year old mom printed off this recipe and wanted me to make it for her. But she is a heart failure patient and this recipe as written has an obscene amount of sodium. I usually make recipes as written the first time and then adjust, but just couldn’t do it with this one. If you want to make a healthier version of this, find a recipe for Italian Sausage seasoning and reduce the salt by a lot. I reduced the recipe I found from 2 tsp to 1/2 tsp. I did use ground turkey instead of pork, but you could use any ground meat and still reduce the sodium by alt. I also used no salt tomatoes and reduced sodium chicken stock. And since I was reducing sodium anyway, I didn’t include the parmesan cheese but we sprinkled it on top of our bowls of soup. I doubt we sprinkled on 1/6 of 1/2 cup of parmesan. Even with all those changes, it really was delicious!! Sorry Kevin for making so many changes to your recipe.
I’m assuming you used ground turkey and added a little bit of the Italian seasoning to it?
This recipe will be added to my family favorites! The prep time was reasonable and this was absolutely delish! We did use the option to thicken the soup and it was perfection!
This recipe is so wonderful. I made it exactly as written and we gobbled it up! You know it’s good when you’re pumped for leftovers for lunch 🙂
This is our new favorite recipe! I made it for the third time last night and doubled the pasta to make a hearty pasta dish instead of a soup and it worked! Served with a side salad and garlic bread for a stellar meal!
We loved this soup.. Easy to make and delicious. I forgot to add the fennel but will add next time. Thank you for a great recipe that will be in the rotation.
Can this be cooked in a crock pot? Like dump all ingredients and just let cook on low for 4 hours?
You can cook this in a crockpot in a ‘dump and cook’ style. You can cook the sausage before adding to the crockpot OR you could slice the sausage into bite sized pieces and let it cook in the crockpot. Leave the pasta, parmesan, cream cheese, and cream out of the crockpot initially. When the soup is done, add the pasta and cook on high until tender, about 8 minutes, before turning off the heat and mixing in the parmesan, cream cheese, and cream. Enjoy!
My husband said the person who came up with this recipe is a genius. Absolutely delicious, and so easy.
What can be used as a substitute for fennel?
You can simply omit the fennel!
Delicious! I left out the fennel and red pepper flakes, but followed the rest of the recipe as written. Big hit with the whole family!