Can you please just look at this deep red broth and appreciate how beautiful it is? When I first saw this recipe by Kristin over at Yellow bliss road, I was drawn in by the bright, beautiful colors and the idea of yet another meal I could put tortellini into. I was NOT disappointed. This soup tastes even better than it looks! I did change a few things from the original recipe, so Here’s a link to the original recipe if you’d like to take a look!
I usually use dried tortellini to save some cash (and time looking for the fresh pasta at the store 

). But fresh tortellini will also work well. Kristin recommends a 9 oz package of fresh pasta.
Ground Italian Sausage comes in many forms, and honestly I don’t think it matters too much which kind you go with as long as all of those zesty Italian flavors are included. I personally use turkey sausage to try to cut down on leftover grease. You can also find sausage as cased links or in standard ground form. Again, it doesn’t matter which one you use, as long as you remove the casing first if you’re using the links.
For the freezer meal instructions, you’ll notice I left out the tortellini, spinach, and water. Tortellini and spinach don’t freeze well in soups. Both get over saturated with water and you’re left with some pretty unappealing textures. For this reason, I suggest you make the rest of the soup (without the water to save on space), freeze that, then add the last three ingredients when it’s time to make and serve the soup. Unfortunately the textural issues also apply to leftovers that are more than a day old, so I would half the recipe if you’re only feeding a couple people.