This cozy Italian Sausage Soup with Gluten-Free Pasta is made with simple ingredients like chopped onion, celery, carrots, leeks, and baby spinach for something green, plus your favorite store-bought sausage and the cutest, tiny pasta! It’s like an Italian Wedding Soup with crumbled sausage instead of meatballs. The pasta is cooked separately while the soup simmers away so that it doesn’t get overly soft, and the recipe comes together in just under an hour. It’s brothy and light, yet deeply satisfying for the ultimate warming meal that’s perfect for the whole family.
A short cut Italian-wedding-style soup: No fuss, all the flavor!
Soup is a love language, and I know it well! If you’ve made some of the dairy-free soups on NK you can probably guess that it’s one of my favorite types recipes to create that are very near and dear to my heart.
I have been wanting to put together a recipe for a gluten-free Italian Wedding soup for quite some time, because it’s one of those ultra-comforting recipes that’s easy to lean on when nothing will do for dinner except a big pot of soup 😋
Just like my recipe for Classic Minestrone made with Gluten-Free Noodles, this one is a delicious gluten free take on a nostalgic classic.
Some insight on my recipe testing process
My starting point was using pre-made Italian sausage for the meatballs instead of a homemade meatball mixture to both cut down on grocery expenses, and also prep time. So that’s what I did when I tested it the first time around.
It turned out extraordinarily yummy (one of those recipes that was pretty much perfect the first time around, which is just the best feeling!). Still, I realized that next time I made the recipe just for us and not for NK, I’d probably skip rolling all the meatballs and go straight to browning the sausage to save even more time.
And because I love sharing meals exactly the way we make them at our house, I landed on this version of the recipe instead. Because it was just as good and just a little bit easier to throw together. A shortcut Italian Meatball-esque soup that feels so totally doable for real life and real schedules!
We love serving it with our Gluten-Free Caesar Salad for an easy weeknight dinner combo that everyone loves.
⏰ It has all the same robust flavor that the original version with meatballs had, but by skipping the meatballs I was able to cut the prep and cook time by about 20-25 minutes, which is no small amount of time, especially on a busy night!
A few notes on ingredients
The Italian sausage
Raw Italian sausage is a must for this soup! The little bits of sausage that brown and create a fond in the pot while it cooks add a ton of flavor to the broth. You can use either loose bulk sausage or raw sausage in a casing; if it’s in a casing, remove it before using it in the recipe.
The veggie prep
To keep the no-fuss theme, roughly chop or dice the onions, carrots, and celery, keeping them about the same size so they cook evenly and at the same rate. If you cut them into different sizes, some will be tender when others are still too firm after cooking.
Finely chop the garlic, and slice the leeks very thinly so they melt into the base of the soup as they sauté. Using leeks like this is one of my favorite ways to deepen the flavor in all kinds of soup recipes.
The pasta
Opting for a small pasta shape like stelline (what I used), or orzo, gives this soup a balanced feel so that the pasta doesn’t overwhelm the other ingredients and you get a little bit of pasta in every bite!
Cooking it separately ensures a texturally harmonious bowl in each serving, with the perfect ratio of broth to ingredients. I also strongly recommend storing the cooked pasta in a separate container from the soup for any leftovers.
Making the soup
If you enjoyed this Italian sausage soup I’d love it if you would take a moment to rate and review it below! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 It’s also a great place for questions, and super helpful for other readers if you share any modifications you made to the recipe.
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Cozy Italian Sausage Soup with Gluten-Free Pasta
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Diet: Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free
Description
This cozy Italian Sausage Soup with Gluten-Free Pasta is made with simple ingredients like chopped onion, celery, carrots, leeks, and baby spinach for something green, plus your favorite store-bought sausage and the cutest, tiny pasta! It’s like an Italian Wedding Soup with crumbled sausage instead of meatballs. The pasta is cooked separately while the soup simmers away so that it doesn’t get overly soft, and the recipe comes together in just under an hour. It’s brothy and light, yet deeply satisfying for the ultimate warming meal that’s perfect for the whole family.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound raw Italian sausage, loose or casings removed
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3 carrots, diced – 2 heaping cups
- 2 large stalks of celery, diced – 3/4 cup
- 1 leek, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced into half moons
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 cup gluten free stelline or orzo pasta
- 5 ounces baby spinach
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Grated parmesan to garnish (optional, or substitute with a plant-based parmesan)
Instructions
- Brown the sausage. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large soup pot. Add the sausage and press into a flat layer, searing one side for 2 minutes to promote browning. Reduce the heat to medium and break up the meat into bite-sized pieces. When sausage is cooked through, remove to a plate or bowl using a slotted spoon, leaving as much oil behind as you can.
- Cook the vegetables and aromatics and add the broth to the soup. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of oil, or add a little more olive oil if there isn’t enough in the pot. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, leeks, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper and sauté for about 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent and the leeks are tender. While the vegetables sauté, bring a small pot of water to a boil for the pasta. Add the cooked sausage back into the pot and pour in the chicken broth. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10-12 minutes, until the veggies are tender.
- Cook the pasta. While the soup is simmering, cook the small pasta according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.
- Finish assembling the soup. When the veggies are tender, turn off the heat and add the baby spinach. Stir until spinach has wilted. Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper. If you’re serving it all at once, you can add the pasta into the pot and stir to combine. Otherwise, scoop a little cooked pasta into each bowl before ladling in the soup to help prevent the pasta from getting overly soft and/or soaking up too much broth. Serve hot, garnished with pepper and grated parmesan (or dairy-free parmesan, if desired), and enjoy!
Notes
This soup should keep in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
Another type of green can be used instead of baby spinach. Escarole or kale would both be delicious.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
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