SSHHHHHHH.......don't tell Martha but....

I took one of her recipes and fixed it. Here's the deal, I save recipes from magazines in hopes of trying them out someday so I'm trying to see which ones are keepers and which aren't. With high gas prices, and higher grocery costs I'm also trying to use what I have on hand. So here's my version of Martha's Savory Fall Stew from her Original Classics cookbook, and how I fixed some problems I found. I list my ingredients and if different I put her original ingredients in parenthesis.

SAVORY FALL STEW MY WAY
2 T. olive oil 12 oz. hot italian sausage, cut into small chunks
1 med. onion, peeled and chopped ( 12 cipollini or pearl onions, peeled)
1 14.5 oz. can stewed tomatoes (1 1/2 c. canned crushed tomatoes)
5 c. water + 5 tsp chicken bullion (3 c. homemade chicken stock or low sodium canned broth) I found that 3 cups of broth would not give enough liquid for stew
1 handful combined fresh rosemary, thyme, oregano, Or 2 t. dried italian herbs
1 - 1 1/2 lb. butternut squash peeled, seeded and cubed ( 2 1/2 lb butternut squash - too much!)
3 carrots cut into 1/2" pieces
1 medium size zucchini, cubed (3 parsnips, cut into 2" sticks, 1 fennel bulb, halved, cored, cut into 1/4" slices)
2 c. beet greens, chopped (12 brussel sprouts, trimmed, cut in half)
1 1/2 cups macaroni or shell noodles ....my addition for hubby
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Cook sausage, stirring until it breaks into small pieces and is not longer pink. Remove sausage with slotted spoon, and set aside.
Pour off all but 1 T of fat and discard. Raise heat to medium high, and add the onion; cook stirring, until golden, about 8 minutes. Add tomatoes, broth and herbs, simmer over medium heat until the liquid starts to thicken, about 20 minutes. Add everything else but the beet greens and noodles, cover and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Add beet greens and noodles and turn down to medium low. Simmer until noodles are done. Season to taste and serve hot.
Martha claims this will only serve 4 done her way, but this really makes a large pot of soup for about 8 people even without the changes I made due to the amount of squash called for in the original recipe. It's delicious either way I'm sure, serve with home made buttermilk bisquits or cornbread. My husband loves it!