Sausage Tortellini Soup (Crock Pot)

Making creamy tortellini soup with sausage and spinach is so easy and it will quickly become a favorite, just read the reviews! Filled with sausage, tomatoes, tortellini, and spinach, you get all the food groups in one savory bowl. You can make it creamy or make it without cream, depending on your mood.

We show you how to make our easy sausage tortellini soup in a Crock Pot, an Instant Pot, or on the stovetop too. It's a Whole Lotta Yum!

This tortellini soup with sausage is honestly the best!

Not only is this our reader favorite soup, it's been our kids' favorite soup for over 10 years. It's super simple and only takes 15 minutes to put together.

You can make it creamy if you're looking for hearty richness or you can make it lighter by leaving the cream out. Both ways are delicious! We can almost guarantee this will become a new family favorite.

What you'll need

• olive oil (optional)- only needing oil to saute the sausage if you're pressure cooking the recipe
• onion
• garlic
• Italian seasoning
• chicken broth 
• canned diced tomatoes - do not drain
• Italian sausage, hot or sweet/mild - we used mild, but the spicy sausage would be yummy too. or mix them together. Chicken Italian sausage is great too.
• frozen cheese tortellini (or fresh) - Our original family recipe uses frozen tortellini, it might be hard to find at some stores. It's ok the swap for fresh cheese tortellini but it'll take less time to cook and it doesn't work well for the IP version unless you add it in at the end.
• parmesan cheese, shredded
• heavy whipping cream (optional)- this is entirely optional depending on if you want a tomato broth version or a creamy version. Cream cheese would be yummy mixed in instead.
• fresh baby spinach - kale is another option

How to make crock pot tortellini soup

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Saute the sausage and onion. Add the garlic and Italian seasoning, cook for 1 more minute.
2. Drain all but 1 tablespoon of grease.
3. Add the cooked sausage to the Crock-Pot, along with the tablespoon of grease. Mix in the broth and canned tomatoes.
4. Cook the sausage tortellini soup crock pot recipe for 7-8 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high.
5. 30 minutes before the recipe is done, add the tortellini, fresh spinach, cream (optional), and shredded parmesan to the pot. Turn the slow cooker to High and cook until the tortellini floats to the surface and the soup is heated throughout.
6. Garnish the tortellini soup with red pepper flakes, more parmesan, and/or fresh basil. Season with salt and pepper as desired. Enjoy!

Jenni's notes

• Small tortellini work best instead of the larger tortellini.
• Use fresh or frozen tortellini for the crock pot or stovetop versions. Frozen tortellini works best for a pressure cooker.
• Tortellini soup does not keep very well, pasta soup absorbs the liquid and expands overnight. Feel free to add more broth the next day if needed.
• The Instant Pot and stovetop instructions are down in the recipe card at the bottom of the page.

More soup recipes 

• pizza soup
• stuffed pepper soup
• crockpot taco soup
• Crock pot Zuppa Toscana soup

Recipe

Creamy Sausage Tortellini Soup (Crock Pot)

Jenni Cole

You'll love our easy and creamy Crock pot IIalian tortellini sausage soup, it'll quickly become a new favorite! Filled with sausage, tomatoes, tortellini, and spinach, you get a Whole Lotta Yum in every savory bite.

4.60 from 237 votes

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Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 hours hrs

Total Time 5 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Course Soups

Cuisine Italian

Servings 8 servings

Calories 442 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 7 cup chicken broth
• 28 oz can + 14 oz can of diced tomatoes undrained
• 1 lb uncooked Italian sausage mild or spicy
• 10 oz small frozen cheese tortellini or fresh
• ½ cup freshly shredded parmesan cheese
• 4 cups fresh baby spinach
• ¾ cup heavy whipping cream optional
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

 

Tortellini Soup (Crock Pot)

• Preheat a large pan or stockpot over medium heat. Add the olive oil to the pot. Cook the mild or hot Italian sausage and chopped onion until cooked through.
• Add the minced garlic and Italian seasoning and cook for one more minute.
• Drain most of the grease from the pan, I like to keep at least 1 tablespoon in the pot to go into the soup since it adds a lot of flavor.
• Put the seasoned sausage mixture into a large crockpot, be sure to scrape up the bits of sausage from the bottom of the pan you cooked it in and add those to the crockpot also. Add the chicken broth and a can of diced tomatoes. Stir all ingredients together.
• Cook the tortellini soup crock pot recipe for 4-5 hours on high or 7-8 hours on low. 
• Add the tortellini, parmesan cheese, and fresh spinach, plus the cream if you're using it. Heat until the tortellini is cooked through.
• Garnish with red pepper flakes, more parmesan, and/or fresh basil. Season with salt and pepper as desired. Enjoy!

Instant Pot

• Turn your pressure cooker to Saute and heat your pot.
• Saute the sausage in 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 5 mins, you can drain the sausage after cooking, but be sure to leave at least 1 tablespoon of grease in the pot for cooking the onions and garlic so they won't stick.
• Add the chopped onion and minced garlic to the cooked Italian sausage and saute for 2 more mins. Stir in the Italian seasoning and mix the seasoning sausage mix together.
• Add about a ½ cup of the chicken broth to the instant pot to help scrape up the brown sausage bits from the bottom of the pot. Press Cancel to turn off the Saute function. 
• Add the remaining chicken broth, canned tomatoes, and frozen tortellini.
• Pressure Cook on High for 1 minute. Some instant pots have this as the Pressure Cook setting and others call it Manual. 
• Let the instant pot tortellini soup do a Natural Release for 3 minutes and then do a Quick Release to release the remaining pressure in the pot.
• Turn the pot back on Saute. Add in the fresh baby spinach and stir until wilted, which only takes 1-2 minutes. Slowly stir in the parmesan cheese, after it's melted, add the ¾ cup whipping cream. I like to add a little parmesan at a time, wait for it to melt, and then add a little more. This keeps the cheese from clumping or sticking to the pot.
• Garnish with red pepper flakes, more parmesan, and/or fresh basil. Enjoy!

Stovetop

• 1. Preheat a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the olive oil to the pot. Cook the sausage for 5 minutes, add the chopped onion, and saute the mixture for 5 more minutes. Add the minced garlic and Italian seasoning, and cook for 1 more minute.
• Add the chicken broth and tomatoes, then turn the heat up to high to bring it to a boil. Once hot, turn the pot down to medium heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Stir in the tortellini, spinach, shredded parmesan, and cream if you're using it. Cook just until the tortellini are cooked through and the spinach is wilted, for 3+ depending on whether you're using fresh or frozen tortellini. Garnish and enjoy!

Notes

• Try to find the small tortellini, it works better in the recipe. Some brands only carry the larger tortellini.

• We don't recommend fresh tortellini for the Instant Pot version, it'll cook to fast and get soggy. If you only have fresh for your IP, stir it in at the end until cooked through.
• Hot Italian pork sausage, mild/sweet Italian pork sausage, or Italian chicken sausage all work well. Use either already ground sausage or remove sausage from the casing if you're using something like Johnsonville Italian sausage.
• The spinach is optional, chopped baby kale would be another option but might take longer to wilt than spinach.
• Tortellini soup does not keep very well, pasta soup absorbs the liquid and expands overnight. Feel free to add more chicken broth the next day if much of the liquid was absorbed into the tortellini.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 442kcalCarbohydrates: 27gProtein: 21gFat: 28gSaturated Fat: 13gPolyunsaturated Fat: 16gCholesterol: 80mgSodium: 1535mgFiber: 3gSugar: 6g

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