Italian Sub Stoup

Our whole family loves the soup I'm posting about today and we've dubbed it "Our Christmas Soup" as we traditionally have this on Christmas Eve. It's actually a soup recipe from Rachael Ray ~ Italian Sub Soup that we adapted a bit.

Italian Sub Soup

Adapted from recipe by Rachael Ray

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
• 3/4 pound, 3 links, hot or sweet Italian sausage, split and meat removed from casing (we use half hot and half sweet sausage)
• 1/4 pound piece stick pepperoni, diced
• 1 ham steak, diced (about 1/2 to 3/4 pound)
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded, quartered and sliced
• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled, quartered and sliced
• 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 6 cups chicken stock
• couple handfuls of vermicelli pasta
• 2 bunches spinach, trimmed and coarsely chopped (about 4 cups)
• tomato paste, 6 0z

  Directions

1. Place a soup pot or deep sided skillet on the stove top and pre-heat to medium high heat. Add olive oil, 2 turns of the pan and the sausage.
2. Brown and crumble the sausage, drain off excess fat if necessary then add the ham and pepperoni.
3. Cook meats together 2 minutes then add peppers and onions and cook 2 or 3 minutes more.
4. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste and season with salt and pepper. Add chicken stock and bring soup to a boil.
5. Stir in pasta and cook for 8 minutes. Stir spinach into soup just before you serve it!