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Easy and Filling Italian Meatball Soup

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bowl of Italian meatball soup
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Soup is one of my favorite meals in the winter, or anytime the weather isn’t too hot, really. Easy and Filling Italian Meatball Soup does not seem to leave much in the way of leftovers, but it does fill us up nicely. The flavors come mainly from the sausage and the pasta sauce, making it a very easy and fast dinner. We all need a fast and nourishing dinner now and then!

This particular soup can be made with mostly fresh, single ingredients or almost entirely of convenient store-bought items, as you prefer. If you were to stock jarred pasta sauce, frozen vegetables and sausage, and prepared beans, you could make this soup mostly from staples on a whim. For me, the whim is usually some sort of change of plans!

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ingredients for soup

Often, I can find Italian sausage that doesn’t contain preservatives, sugar, or other ingredients I don’t want. If not, it isn’t difficult or time consuming to mix the meatballs out of plain ground meat and seasonings. (See instructions after the recipe.) You can even skip the meatball-rolling step and just crumble up the meat and brown it before adding in the veggies and finishing the recipe up! Or save time by using precooked, sliced Italian sausages from the store. Somehow, the meatballs make it seem more special, but skipping them will save you time. We all have days like that!

I try to keep well-soaked, cooked beans on hand, portioned out in containers in the freezer. Alternatively, a can of beans will do the same thing! Another convenience I sometimes use is pre-chopped, frozen bags of vegetables. Kroger carries a mirepoix comprised of chopped bell peppers, onion, and celery that works well in this recipe. I stock up when they go on sale, as they are a useful shortcut to many meals. (They also have a celery, onion, and carrot one that would work well.)

pot of soup on stove

What to Do

Start with the meat. Either use bulk Italian sausage to make meatballs, or use plain, ground meat and spices. (Instructions farther down.) Brown the meatballs in soup pot, then remove them.

meatballs browning in pot

Use leftover fat from the meatballs, adding oil as needed, to cook all the chopped vegetables until soft.

vegetables in pot

When vegetables are soft, add the meat stock or broth, pasta sauce, and beans. Also return meatballs to the pot. Heat through and serve. Or simmer longer if time permits!

adding broth to soup

Easy and Filling Italian Meatball Soup

Rachel
This hearty soup comes together in under half an hour! Full of veggies and meat, nobody will be hungry afterward. Loads of Italian flavor make it satisfying as well as nourishing.
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Course Soup
Cuisine Italian

Ingredients
  

  • 1 onion
  • 2 stalks celery
  • 1 bell pepper, any color
  • 8 oz. mushrooms
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 1 jar pasta sauce
  • 1 quart meat stock or broth, any flavor
  • 1-2 C cooked beans or 1 can beans of choice (I used navy beans that were already soaked and cooked)
  • 1 T olive oil or other cooking fat
  • 2-3 lb. bulk Italian sausage, uncooked

OR mix your own sausage using

  • 2 lb. ground pork (or other ground meat
  • 2 tsp. garlic powder
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 2 tsp. Italian seasoning
  • 2 tsp. fennel seeds
  • 1/2 tsp. black pepper

Instructions
 

  • Heat a soup pot over medium heat. Add a bit of olive oil or other fat if you are using turkey or chicken sausage. If you are using pork, it will have enough fat of its own and you needn't add any.
    (If you are making your own sausage, mix all ingredients together now. See below for proportions.)
    Form Italian sausage into meatballs and set them in the pot to brown. Cover so they cook through quickly. Turn them to brown all sides. Remove to a bowl and continue until all the meat is cooked.
  • While the meatballs are browning, chop onion, celery, pepper, mushrooms, and garlic.
  • If needed, add some oil to the pot. Otherwise, use the fat left from cooking the meatballs to cook the vegetables until soft, maybe 10 minutes.
  • Stir in the jar of pasta sauce, meat stock or broth, and beans.
  • Heat through and add the meatballs back into the pot. Simmer on low for awhile longer, or serve as soon as everything is cooked and thoroughly heated.

Notes

1. The recipe calls for bulk Italian sausage formed into meatballs. If you are in a hurry, it also works to simply crumble and brown the sausage, then add the veggies and proceed with the recipe as written. The soup will be different, but also good, with a bit less fuss.
2. If you like, precooked Italian sausages also work well. Slice them into bites to add with the last few ingredients.
3. Good Italian sausage can be hard to find. The day I photographed this soup, I couldn’t find the sausage I normally use. The only one I saw had corn syrup, canola oil, BHT, and so on. For EACH POUND of ground meat (I used pork, but others are fine), add:
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp black pepper
a clove or two of minced garlic or 1 tsp. garlic powder
Add more pepper or some red pepper flakes if you like it spicy, and maybe a little Parmesan cheese if you like.
4. The veggies are not set in stone. Substitute frozen peas or green beans for the navy beans, leave out the bell pepper or mushrooms, add carrots, use up leftover bits of vegetables, etc.

I hope you enjoy Easy and Filling Italian Meatball Soup and find it is fast to prepare. A nice thing about soup is how adaptable it is! What vegetable or other variations did you try?