Tortellini primavera soup is delicious, full of spring vegetables and cheesy tortellini in a creamy broth flavored with wine.
Tortellini primavera soup is pretty much an excuse to eat cheesy tortellini and all the spring vegetables you can think of all cooked in one pot. I mean, I guess you could just make pasta primavera, but I just really loved the idea of making pasta primavera into a soup. Can you believe that when I was working on this recipe I did a Google search for pasta primavera soup and really came up with very little? I figured the internet would be saturated with ideas. Funny, I just now searched for tortellini primavera soup and there were several of those. Oh well. None of them are like mine so I don’t feel too bad about it.
Honestly I never really liked pasta primavera. I’m a little embarrassed to tell you why…it’s because I’m so obsessed with pasta in creamy, cheesy white sauces that the idea of a pasta dish with all those luscious vegetables tossed in a super-light, barely if at all creamy sauce seemed pretty blah to me. By the way, I used to not care much for red-sauced pastas either. I’ve grown a lot, though, and while I will usually still vote for Alfredo over red sauce, I can eat all manner of pasta dishes now and be happy.
If white wine (or Vermouth, which I have started subbing pretty much 100% of the time for white wine, since it is fortified and doesn’t care that it takes me months to use it up) is involved, any recipe is made at least 1000 times better and this tortellini primavera soup is no exception. As I’m sure you’ve heard many a television chef say, most of the alcohol cooks out (but not all, so if you are concerned, check out my note at the bottom of the recipe). It doesn’t impart a “wine-y” flavor at all…just a deep flavor note that enhances the flavors of everything else. Oh, and then there’s heavy cream. I heart heavy cream.
Don’t let the 30-minute sweat scare you. It’s a trick I learned from Deliciously Organic that makes the vegetables really meld together, marrying their flavors and making them tender and soup-tastic. While you obviously don’t want to leave a pot completely unattended on your stovetop for thirty minutes, that thirty minutes will give you time to chop up the rest of your vegetables, make your lunch for the next day, empty the dishwasher…whatev.
I hope that you’ll celebrate spring with me by making this tortellini primavera soup!
Mary
Yield: 6-8 servings
20 minPrep Time:
30 minCook Time:
50 minTotal Time:
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Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 leeks, halved, sliced, and thoroughly washed
- 1/2 red, yellow, or orange pepper, diced
- 2 carrots, scrubbed and thinly sliced on the diagonal
- 4 ounces button mushrooms, wiped clean and thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup Vermouth or dry white wine
- 1 large or 2 small zucchini, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced
- 1 large or 2 small yellow squashes, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced
- 8 ounces asparagus, woody ends removed, cut into 1 1/2 to 2-inch pieces
- 4 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
- 1 pound cheese tortellini (frozen or refrigerated)
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
- salt
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a 6 to 8-quart Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the leeks, peppers, carrots, and mushrooms. Stir to coat the vegetables with butter. Cover and reduce heat to low. Leave the pot covered for 30 minutes.
- After the vegetables have sweated for 30 minutes, remove the lid and raise the temperature to medium. Add the Vermouth or wine and cook for one minute. Add the zucchini, squash, asparagus, and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are tender.
- Add the cheese tortellini and cook according to package directions. Stir in the tomatoes and heavy cream. Cook to heat through. Salt to taste and serve immediately.
Notes
If you prefer to leave out the Vermouth/wine, just use an additional cup of chicken stock.
Click here to print the recipe for tortellini primavera soup!
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