italian sausage soup!

our church had a potluck christmas party tonight w/ an italian theme... i decided to make a main dish, but didnt want to make a tomato based sauce w/ pasta, since that is the usual... and i wanted something w/ meat... after searching long and hard for a recipe, i found an italian sausage soup recipe!  since, it was going to be cold and rainy, i thought it would be perfect!  it turned out very tasty, as the other 1000 (5 star) reviews for this soup said...

italian sausage soup!

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound Italian sausage 1 clove garlic, minced 2 (14 ounce) cans beef broth 1 (14.5 ounce) can Italian-style stewed tomatoes 1 cup sliced carrots

1 (14.5 ounce) can great Northern beans, undrained 2 small zucchini, cubed 2 cups spinach - packed, rinsed and torn 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a stockpot or Dutch oven, brown sausage with garlic. Stir in broth, tomatoes and carrots, and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 15 minutes.
2.	Stir in beans with liquid and zucchini. Cover, and simmer another 15 minutes, or until zucchini is tender.
3.	Remove from heat, and add spinach. Replace lid allowing the heat from the soup to cook the spinach leaves. Soup is ready to serve after 5 minutes.