Tons of Tomatoes Italian-Style Pepper and Sausage Soup

This spicy, light, summer soup is a great way to use up the abundance of summer tomatoes and reap the benefit of the vitamins from summer tomatoes and bell peppers! This can be served as a soup, or ladled over pasta for a light and summery sauce.

Tons of Tomatoes Italian-Style Pepper and Sausage Soup

1 recipe of OOOPS Salsa – see below

1 lb. of Scimeca’s spicy ground Italian sausage (Scimeca’s is a local Italian company in Kansas City)

2 red bell peppers, diced into bite-size pieces

2 green bell peppers, diced into bite-size pieces

10 whole small tomatoes

1 onion, diced

6 to 8 leaves fresh purple basil, or any equivalent

Salt to taste

1 large tomato for garnish

Grated Parmesan for garnish

Cooked pasta - optional

Add the 10 small tomatoes in a big soup pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Cook until the skins slip off of the tomatoes. Pour into a drainer to cool. Keep the soup pot handy for the recipe.

Meanwhile in a skillet begin cooking the sausage, breaking it up to crumble. If you have to use sausage with casings, slit open the sausages and remove the casings before adding to the skillet.

Use kitchen shears or a knife to chiffonade the basil leaves (cut into little strips). Add the basil leaves, diced onion, and the diced red and green bell peppers to the sausage mixture, and stir occasionally and cook until the sausage is completed browned.

Remove the sausage and pepper mixture to the large soup pot. Add the OOOPS Salsa.

Use tongs to remove the skin from all of the ten tomatoes. Remove the stems too. Add the cooked tomatoes to the soup pot. Bring to a simmer.

Ladle soup into bowls, top with chopped fresh tomato, and grated parmesan. Serve over pasta if desired.

OOOPS Salsa

This is what you get when you try to “doctor up” your son-in-laws salsa recipe – an accident that doesn’t taste like salsa, but makes a great soup base.

8 tomatoes

5 long, dark green HOT peppers - divided

4 large cloves garlic, minced

Salt to taste

¼ c. white vinegar

½ c. sliced peperoncini peppers

¼ c. juice from the jar of peperoncini peppers

In a big soup pot, add the 8 tomatoes and 4 whole dark green peppers. Cover with water and bring to a boil.  Do not cut the peppers into pieces or remove the stems.

Once the tomatoes are soft and the skins have slipped off, drain the tomatoes and peppers and allow them to cool slightly.

Add the minced garlic to the blender. Using tongs and kitchen shears, pick up the last hot pepper with the tongs, and use the shears in your other hand to snip off the stem. Leave the seeds in the pepper and add the whole pepper to the blender.

Using the tongs and shears again, use the same technique and remove the stems from the cooked hot peppers. Use the tongs to remove the skin from the cooked tomatoes. Cut out the stems from the cooked tomatoes too. Add the cooked tomatoes, cooked hot peppers, vinegar, peperoncini peppers and juice, and salt to the blender. Blend well.