Today I got very mad.  The only restaurant I could find in our area that had soup was Dolts, Pho Anna (Vietnamese) and Japanese restaurants.  I wanted soup for dinner and I wanted to go out.  Well I ended up making my own.  This recipe comes from a Williams Sonoma cookbook called Soup of the Day.  It was November 18th and this sounded good.  Jim ran to the store and bought Orecchiette and Broccoli, I had the sausage.  My Italian sausage was chicken sausage which saves about 150 calories off the soup as opposed to regular Italian sausage.  It was good but use 12 cups of broth instead of 8.  It as not soupy enough with only 8 cups.  We also had leftovers for the next day.  I added another 8 cups of stock and that threw off the flavorings.  If I had just done it from the start.  

Ingredients:

12 C chicken broth (3 boxes.  I use bone broth as it has no salt.)

1 t red pepper flakes

I# Italian Sausage

1 1/2# broccoli trimmed and cut in florets

Salt and pepper

12 oz. Orecchiette pasta

Directions:

1. In a large, heavy pot, bring the broth and red pepper to a boil over medium heat.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Using a fork, prick the skins of the sausages.  In a frying pan, cook the sausages over medium heat until lightly browned on all sides and cooked through, 15-20 minutes.  Transfer to a paper towel to drain and cool.  Cut the sausages into rounds and add to the broth.  
3. Add the broccoli and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes.
4. In a large pot, bring 5 qts. water to a boil over high heat.  Add 1 T salt and the orecchiette and cook until al dente, about 12 minutes.  Drain well.  
5. Add the orecchiette to the broth and season with salt and pepper.  Stir and mix well and serve.