Italian Sausage Vegetable Soup

I found this recipe on Recipezaar. I changed it to suit my Weight Watcher needs and for a cup it turned out (by my calculations) to be 2 points per cup...not bad. Instead of using regular Italian Sausage I used Turkey Italian Sausage...4 links, even though it came in pack of 5.

Italian Sausage Vegetable Soup

Ingredients
1 lb Italian sausage (I used Turkey Italian Sausage, 4 links casings removed)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled/ diced
2 small zucchini, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1/2 cup dry white wine
5 cups chicken broth

1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes, in tomato puree
1 teaspoon dried basil, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
salt
freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup uncooked orzo pasta (rice-shaped pasta)
2/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Directions
1 Use bulk sausage or remove the casings from the sausage and discard.

2 Brown the sausage in a heavy Dutch oven or large saucepan, mashing it with the back of a spoon until the meat is no longer pink and has rendered most of its fat.

3 Spoon out most of the fat from the cooked sausage and discard.

4 Add the onions and garlic and cook, stirring,until soft but not browned.

5 Add carrots, zucchini, pepper, wine, chicken broth, tomatoes, basil, and oregano and bring to a boil.

6 When the soup in boiling, add the orzo and cook for 20 minutes.

7 Season to taste with salt and pepper.

8 Serve in heavy soup bowls.

9 If desired, sprinkle Parmesan cheese over each serving.

10 To prepare in advance: Like most hearty soups, this tastes best if it is cooled, refrigerated overnight, then reheated to serve.

11 It may also be frozen.


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