Mamma's Tortellini Soup

This is called Mamma's Tortellini soup, since it's a recipe from one of our cooking club member's mother. Thank you Tamara and your mom. This soup is wonderful. I put down the original recipe and then the alterations I did. This again is one of those soups that you can add or delete anything you want. Wonderful for a cold winter night. The original recipe serves 4-6 people.

Ingredients
1 lb. of mild Italian sausage, casings removed and broken into bite-sized pieces
4 lg. cloves of garlic, chopped
1 onion chopped
2 cups of zucchini, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
½ green bell pepper, chopped
½ tsp. oregano leaves, crushed
4 Knorrs chicken broth cubes
10 cups of water
1 large can of diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup of fresh chopped Italian parsley
1 can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
One 18 oz. package of fresh tortellini
Salt & pepper
Fresh parmesan cheese, grated

Method:
1) In a large soup pot, sauté sausage with onion, red & green peppers, garlic and oregano.
2) Add water, chicken broth cubes, tomatoes and beans.
3) Bring to a boil.
4) Reduce to simmer. (You can let it simmer for awhile, if needed.)
4) Add zucchini, parsley and tortellini approx. 20-30 minutes before serving
6) Add salt & pepper to taste.
7) Grate parmesan cheese on top and serve hot.

Changes I made:
In step one, I added 1 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes.
In step two , instead of water, I used canned chicken broth and did use 1 cube of the chicken broth cubes
In step 4, I also added a half bag of shredded carrots
After adding the tortellini, I did add a little additional chicken stock, since the pasta absorbed some of the water, and it wasn't as "soupy".
Because I didn't drain off the fat from the sausage, I did feel the need to skim it off the top of the soup as it was simmering.