Creamy Italian Sausage Gnocchi Soup

The use of soups is the key to a healthy stomach and the basis for proper nutrition. There are many options for their preparation: red beet, hodgepodge, vegetable, meat or fish. However, any dish annoys over time, I want to try something unusual. A great alternative to bored first courses is the soup with pasta balls. This dish comes from Ukraine. To prepare a soup with dumplings, you must first boil the broth: chicken, pork, beef or vegetables. For a rich, tasty and externally attractive dish in the process of cooking meat, it is not necessary to add water, and it is advisable to clean the finished broth from curd proteins through gauze. 

How to make gnocchi

Recipes of dumplings for soup and for second courses are slightly different. The dough for dumplings in the soup often includes flour, eggs and water, sometimes replacing it with milk. You can also prepare dough for dumplings and without adding eggs: with yeast or custard, based on semolina. According to consistency, the mass may be different. As a rule, thick elastic dough dumplings are denser. 

Boiled dumplings for soup are popular throughout Europe. For example, in Russia they are lazy dumplings, dumplings are made in Poland, dumplings are loved in Italy, Germans and Czechs are dumplings. They are served with creamy toppings, as a separate dish. Garnish with fresh herbs, sweet variations: condensed milk. Add small pasta and soups. Soup recipes with dumplings most common in home cooking. 

You can make low-fat broth from any part of the carcass. You can use the back, which, due to the abundance of bones, is not suitable for second courses. Be careful with the addition of spices, otherwise they will kill the delicate taste of the broth.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

400 g (1 lb) Italian sausage, casings removed and cut into chunks

1 medium onion, finely diced

1 medium carrot, diced

2 celery sticks, diced

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes

75 ml (1/3 cup) dry white wine

1 liter (4 cups) chicken stock

150 ml (3/4 cup) double cream

500 g gnocchi

A handful baby spinach

30 g (1/4 cup) freshly grated Parmesan

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot and fry the sausage for 4-5 minutes over medium-high heat until slightly browned, crumbling it with your spoon as it cooks. Add the onion, carrot and celery and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the garlic, Italian seasoning, and red chili flakes and continue to cook for another minute until fragrant. Stir in the white wine and cook for a minute, stirring often, until the alcohol evaporates almost completely. Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Stir in the double cream, then add the gnocchi and cook for 2-3 minutes or as specified on the instructions on the package. Next, stir in the baby spinach and grated Parmesan, season to taste and serve immediately.

I managed to catch a cold for the first time in years, and I've been in bed for the last two days feeling absolutely exhausted. I made this soup yesterday because I love it, and it was so comforting. 

I made enough for two days and I'm looking forward to the leftovers today 😍😍😍