Italian beef tortellini soup is made with jarred marinara sauce and lean ground beef. Tricolored tortellini make it super kid-friendly too!
When you live in Michigan, you pretty much live in soup weather for 3 out of 4 seasons, so that’s the better part of the year. I’m not complaining. Italian beef tortellini soup, or the ingredients that make this recipe, are foods that my toddler loves eating. Heck, I might start making this soup once a week just so he’ll reap the nutritious benefits from the ground beef, vegetables, and tomato sauce!
Along with Joey’s love for meat sauce and pasta, this soup was also inspired by a tomato basil soup recipe from Iowa Girl Eats. Kristin uses jarred marinara sauce as the base for her soup, which is a GENIUS idea in my book. Especially if you can find a jarred sauce that’s not too high in sodium. Plus, jarred sauce already has the Italian seasonings one would add to classify it as Italian, so why not take a cooking shortcut?
I boiled the tortellini separate from the soup so they wouldn’t soak up too much of the broth. I also served our soup with a nice sprinkle of parmesan cheese. That could also be the secret ingredient that gets Joey asking for “MO”…..
- 1 pound of 93% lean ground beef [or leaner]
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- ½ cup of onion, diced
- ½ cup of carrot, diced
- ½ cup of celery, diced
- 1-24 ounce jar of marinara sauce [I used roasted garlic from Trader Joe's]
- 32 ounces of low-sodium beef broth
- 1 cup of cheese tortellini, cooked
- Heat a large stock pot or dutch oven to medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and brown, breaking into small crumbles. Remove from pot and discard any liquid.
- Add olive oil to the pot and reduce heat to medium. Add onion, carrot, and celery. Sautee until tender, about 12-15 minutes.
- Add sauce and broth to the pot and heat through. Return beef to the pot, along with the tortellini.
- Serve immediately, with a teaspoon of parmesan cheese on top.
