Sicilian Sausage Soup goes Tex Mex

During my recipe travels I found one for Sicilian Sausage Soup; it sounded interesting. However, I screwed up and bought Tex-Mex tomatoes (like Rotel) by mistake. It was time to improvise. I used hot sausage instead of sweet and the whole thing had a bit of kick after a few days of "mellowing." Ha! It turned out to be one spicy little dish, growing warmer with age. But that's OK, too. I had never used orzo before and that was interesting. That little bitty stuff plumps right up. Who would have thought? So now, in one post you get two recipes - what I was supposed to do and what I actually did - the best of both.

Sicilian Sausage Soup
1/2 lb. sweet Italian sausage
1 large onion chopped
1 can (2 pounds 3 oz.) Italian-style tomatoes
2 cans (13 3/4 oz.) each of chicken broth
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 cup orzo (rice-shaped macaroni)
Salt and Pepper
Cook sausage in a large saucepan breaking up meat as it cooks. Cook until pink is gone. Add onions, cook until tender about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, broth and basil, bring to a boil; stir in orzo, salt and pepper. Lower heat, cover and simmer until orzo is tender about 15 minutes.

OK, now this is what I actually did, using the basic recipe above.
1/2 lb. hot sausage
1/4 onion, chopped
2 cans (14.5 oz) Tex-Mex diced tomatoes
26 oz. of chicken broth (combination of chicken stock and bouillon cubes dissolved to make total of 26 oz. of liquid)
1 t. basil
1/2 cup orzo
salt and pepper

Cook all ingredients as directed above. I did let it simmer for about an hour or so on the stove. Interesting with a nice little kick. Serves 4-5.

Related articles

• say it like you eat it. (orzo with sausage and peppers) (backtoherroots.com)
• Sausage and Rice Chili (paneful.wordpress.com)
• Sausage Soup (franksblog.hoferfamily.org)
• Sausage and Squash Risotto (paneful.wordpress.com)