Add the extra virgin olive oil to a large Dutch oven or soup pot over medium to medium-low heat.

Add the diced onion, celery, and carrots.

Now, listen to me: we are not stir-frying these vegetables! This is Italian cooking. We want slow and low.

Let the vegetables gently sauté until they’re softened, translucent, and just beginning to get a little tinge of golden color.

Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant.

Then add the dried basil, garlic powder, oregano, smoked paprika, ground mustard, cayenne, crushed red pepper, and cracked black pepper.

Stir everything together and let those seasonings bloom in the oil with the vegetables and garlic.

THIS is when your kitchen is going to start smelling absolutely ridiculous.

And notice what we aren’t adding: salt.

Do not salt this soup yet! Between the Italian sausage, chicken base, and Parmesan, there is already plenty of saltiness coming. Taste the finished soup first and only add salt if you think it actually needs it.

Push the seasoned vegetables over to one side of the pot.

Add the Italian sausage to the open side and break it apart with your spoon as it cooks. You can use mild or hot Italian sausage depending on what you like.

Continue cooking over medium to medium-low heat until the sausage is browned and pretty much cooked through.

Then mix the sausage and vegetables together and let everybody get to know each other in that pot!

Push the sausage mixture over to the side again.

Add the Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base and tomato paste directly into the fat in the bottom of the pot.

Do not skip this part!

Sauté the chicken base and tomato paste in that fat for a minute or two before mixing everything together.

The tomato paste is SO important here. We’re not adding enough to make this a tomato-based soup. It simply adds incredible umami, depth, and that gorgeous slightly pink color to the finished broth.

Pour in the white wine and stir everything together, scraping up all the delicious bits from the bottom of the pot.

I use Chardonnay, and one of my favorite little hacks is buying those mini bottles of wine for cooking. Half of one is basically perfect for this recipe!

Let the wine cook for about 3 minutes over medium heat so it reduces and the alcohol cooks off.

Pour in 4 cups of water and bring the soup to a boil.

Once boiling, add the potato gnocchi.

Cook the gnocchi for approximately 3–5 minutes, or according to the package directions, until tender.

Once the gnocchi is nearly finished, add:

¾ cup grated Parmesan

1 cup heavy cream

5 oz roughly chopped fresh spinach

Stir everything together until the Parmesan melts into the broth and the spinach wilts.

Lower the heat and let everything come together for about another 5 minutes. Don’t simmer it forever because we don’t want mushy, overcooked gnocchi!

Turn off the heat and let the soup sit for a few minutes.

This is important because the soup will thicken as it sits.

Then taste it. If — and ONLY if — you think it needs salt, add a little now.

Grab the Italian bread and get ready because this soup is INSANE.