Saturday Sketti Soup

If any of you have watched Honey Boo Boo, you may have seen the episode where Mama June makes sketti for the family.  She takes about a half  tub of butter and squirts a lot of ketchup on it, then microwaves.   The finishing flourish involves mixing the vat of red grease with boiled pasta.  Seriously?

And no, I didn't use Mama June's recipe for our Saturday spaghetti soup.  Once again I found a recipe on Pinterest from Midwest Living that I altered slightly.  We prefer some type of ground Italian sausage with pasta (as opposed to the hamburger in the recipe), so I substituted a pound of Italian sweet sausage along with canned tomatoes with garlic, basil, and oregano and pasta sauce with basil to spice it up a bit..

The basic ingredients:

1 lb. sweet Italian sausage
1/2 onion chopped
1 chopped green pepper
2 stalks chopped celery
2 sliced carrots
2 minced garlic cloves
1 jar pasta sauce  (I use Classico tomato with basil because it's lower in calories)
2 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes with Italian spices
2 1/2 cups water
1 t. sugar
1/2 t. sea salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/2 t. dried Italian seasoning (to taste)
dash crushed red pepper (to taste)
2 oz. spaghetti pasta broken into smaller pieces
Choice of cheese to top

Cook sausage and veggies  in soup pot until meat is no longer pink and vegetables are tender.  Drain grease. Add tomatoes, pasta sauce, water, sugar and seasonings and bring to a boil.   Add spaghetti and bring back to a gentle boil for 12 to 15 minutes.

Top with cheese (I use a grated 5 cheese Italian combo) and you have quick spaghetti soup that is WAY superior to Mama June's sketti!  Next time I may try adding chopped black olives and chopped mushrooms as a substitution for the chopped celery and carrots.

Click on the link above to see Midwest Living's colorful photo of the soup.  I can't find my camera cord to download photos to my laptop.  Told you I was feeling discombobulated!