Have you ever raced home from a busy day at work or other activities and immediately faced the question of what to do for dinner?
Often, our first impulse is to grab a burger from our favorite fast-food place or look for a frozen pizza you know you stashed in the freezer.
There are better options. I am proposing that one simple pound of Italian sausage (either sweet or hot) is your salvation for a quick and healthy dinner. You can bake the sausage with a little water at 350 degrees for about an hour and 15 minutes. Cover the pan for half that time, then uncover to lightly brown. Add a baked potato and a green salad and you are done. Italian fast food!
When I was growing up, Italian sausage was part of our meal rotation. Many Harrisburg Italians traveled to a shop in Steelton, the little town south of Harrisburg, to get authentic Italian sausage. A family friend always picked some up for us. My mother insisted that any sausage she cooked contain finocchio. Finocchio is the sweet anise flavoring from the fennel plant. She wouldn’t accept any other!
But today, Ryan Hummer at the West Shore Farmers Market offers a variety of wonderful sausages including cheddar cheese, pecorino cheese, jalapeno, maple and even blueberry. I usually stick to either Italian sweet or hot for most of my recipes. But experimenting with the others is fun.
So, back to your busy day and no dinner. How about homemade soup on a cold January evening? Tastes of Italia magazine provided this favorite recipe for me, which is a complete dinner filled with protein, carbs and vegetables. It is so easy to tweak. Use spinach or kale instead of escarole, pasta shapes instead of angel hair, chicken broth instead of beef, and any kind of Italian sausage you like. Grab a glass of an Italian red while you are putting it together.
Zuppa di Salsiccia (Sausage Soup)
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup chopped onions
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 celery stalk, diced
- 2 medium Italian sausage links, casings removed and crumbled
- A pinch of dried red chili flakes
- 2 cloves garlic, diced
- 4 cups beef or chicken broth
- 3 cups water
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 15-ounce can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- A small bag fresh spinach, rinsed and chopped
- 4 ounces of pasta broken in pieces or 4-ounce small pasta shapes
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for topping
Directions
- In a large pot, combine the olive oil, onions, rosemary and celery; cook for 5 minutes on medium heat.
- Add the sausage, red chili flakes and garlic and cook for 5 to 7 minutes until sausage is nicely browned.
- Add broth, water, tomato paste, beans and spinach.
- Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add pasta and cook until al dente.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese if desired.
Place in soup bowls, pour some wine, grab a little baguette of bread, and you have dinner.
Now I admit, you need to have several staple ingredients on hand (pantry items, as they say). But the sausage could be waiting in the freezer, and the spinach can be frozen too.
Fresh and healthy homemade soup. Fairly quickly. And enough for lunch the next day!
Maybe a burger and fries once in a while….
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