Tortellini Primavera Soup is everything we crave in early spring: fresh, green, and light. This brothy, vibrant soup starts with savory pancetta and layers in flavor from leeks, shallots, garlic, and spring onions. Cheese tortellini gives a comforting pasta hug, while broccoli, sugar snap peas, and spinach bring a fresh taste of spring. Finished with a swirl of pesto and a splash of vinegar, it’s a light but satisfying soup that’s perfect for the seasonal shift.
Easing into spring (with soup, of course)
This particular SoupAddict has to be dragged away from her beloved winter soups, clawing the air madly and catching her fingernails on the figurative winter soup doorjamb, as though being pulled from food heaven itself.
It’s a hard transition, I’m not gonna lie. But once I accept the reality of the jarring sunlight shift caused by daylight savings time, I’m usually ready to start embracing the light foods of spring. Especially after I sit down to start planning my summer vegetable garden.
Primavera means spring in Italian, and my goal with this soup is to embrace the best of spring produce mixed with a little bit of winter comfort with additions like tortellini and pancetta. I think it’s beautiful in the bowl, brothy and carby and green with lots of flavor.
Tortellini Primavera Soup is —
- A Seasonal Celebration: Captures the transition from winter to spring in a light but satisfying soup.
- A Vegetable Powerhouse: Packed with nutritious, spring green vegetables like broccoli, sugar snap peas, and spinach.
- Full of Flavor Complexity: Combines rich pancetta, lots of onions, basil pesto, and a touch of punchy vinegar to heighten flavor.
- Quick and Easy: Ready in about 30 minutes, making it totally doable for weeknight dinners.
Key Ingredients
Onions — I’m keeping things simple here by creating a surprisingly complex broth flavored with veggies from the onion family, including leeks, shallots, and garlic. I call for a wide variety of onions, including spring onions, which, at the grocery store, look like gigantic scallions with a golf-ball sized bulb. They’re actually just young onions harvested before allowing to mature to full bulb size, but they have a distinctive sweet-oniony flavor that really sing when added later in the cook (as I do here).
Pancetta — Because this is a transition soup between winter and spring, I wanted to retain a little salty richness for this soup. Pancetta is my go to here, although you can substitute with a strip of regular bacon, Canadian bacon or even leftover cubed ham.
Spring veggies — My favorite spring produce includes broccoli, sugar snap peas, and spinach. Sugar snap pea pods are completely edible and add a nice little crunch. I’m also using frozen peas, because honestly, although delicious, I’m not terribly enthusiastic about shucking peas. You can also add other favorite spring vegetables, such as asparagus or fennel.
Tortellini — I love refrigerated tortellini because it’s so easy to incorporate into soups with no hassle. They cook up quickly, and are available in a variety of flavors (I used cheese-stuffed).
Pesto — Although basil isn’t a spring herb, pesto (whether homemade or store-bought) adds a lovely herbal finish to spring soups. I also added a splash of champagne vinegar (you can use red wine vinegar, or even lemon juice) for bright note of acid.
Creme Fraiche — I wanted to give a little shout out here to creme fraiche. While an optional topping, I love the light, creamy tang it adds when mixed into the bowl with sliced scallions and a generous shower of red pepper flakes. Creme fraiche is a flavor cross between sour cream, mascarpone, and cream cheese. It’s fresh and creamy, slighty sweet, slighty sour. It complements all of the vegetal greens going on in this soup.
How to Make Tortellini Primavera Soup
Ready to make the recipe? Skip to the recipe card now to get the full ingredient list, quantities, prep/cooking times, and printable, detailed instructions. Or, keep scrolling for a visual walk-through of making the soup.
Prep notes
Here’s a quick guide for prepping the ingredients, if you need it (not including anything that simply needs to be measured out of a container, such as dried herbs and liquids).
- Chop the broccoli into small florets, cutting off most of the stems (have lots of stems leftover? Make Broccoli Stem Pesto!). The goal is for the broccoli to be small enough to sit on the spoon with other ingredients. Leave the sugar snap pea pods whole for blanching.
- Pancetta is usually sold cubed, but if the package contains a rough cut, give everything an extra chop so that it’s in small pieces. This is a light soup, and while the flavor of bacon is very welcome, you don’t necessarily want a big chunk on your spoon.
- Leeks can accumulate dirt between their layers, so be sure to clean the leeks thoroughly before chopping.
- Slice the shallots and spring onions thinly. Slice the scallions on the diagonal for an attractive garnish.
- Break off three cloves of garlic from the bulb, and peel the hard outer and papery layers. Mince finely.
- Clean the spinach leaves thoroughly and pat dry. Break off and discard long stems, then slice the leaves chiffonade.
- Finely grate the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
Blanch the green vegetables
To retain a bright green color as long as possible, you’ll want to give the broccoli and sugar snaps a quick blanch in boiling water, and then plunge them into ice cold water to stop the cooking. This extra step will help prevent or delay the broccoli and sugar snaps from taking on a sort of sad olive green coloring, and the broccoli will stay crispier a little longer.
Cook the pancetta and alliums
The pancetta will not take long to cook. Some brands package theirs as small cubes, and those will go very fast. Others have more of a bacon texture, and you’ll need to let the fat render out. You can cook the leeks with pancetta, and then add the shallots after the pancetta has taken on some golden edges (shallots cook more quickly than leeks).
Cook the tortellini
Refrigerated tortellini cooks up in just 4 to 5 minutes. It will probably take longer to bring the soup broth to a boil!
Add the veggies and finish the soup
Once the tortellini have cooked and risen to the surface, add all of the green vegetables, including the frozen peas (no need to thaw first). Don’t forget the spring onions, which I did in the photo above! When the spinach is wilty – just a minute or two – stir in the pesto and vinegar. Serve with your favorite toppings.
Storing
Store any leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 2 or 3 days. The pasta might absorb some of the broth during its stay in the fridge, so you might need to top up the liquids when reheating. Tortellini does not freeze particularly well in soups, so I would not recommend that route.
Spring has sprung in the most delicious way possible with this Tortellini Primavera Soup. It’s a celebration of transition, bridging the gap between hearty winter comfort and fresh spring vitality
Tortellini Primavera Soup
Ingredients
- 4 ounces broccoli florets , chopped into small pieces
- 4 ounces sugar snap pea pods
- 1 tablespoon olive or avocado oil
- 4 ounces cubed pancetta
- 1 leek , sliced thinly (white and light green parts only)
- 2 medium shallots , sliced thinly
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
- 16 ounces refrigerated cheese tortellini (or your favorite flavor)
- 1/2 cup frozen sweet peas (no need to thaw)
- 1 spring onion , sliced thinly
- 1 cup spinach leaves , sliced julienne
- 2 tablespoons basil pesto (homemade or store-bought)
- Salt and black pepper
Suggested toppings:
- Creme fraiche
- Grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
- 1 scallion (green onion), sliced thinly on the diagonal
- Crushed red pepper flakes
Instructions
Blanch the veggies:
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Prepare a large bowl of ice water and set aside.
- Add the broccoli florets and pea pods to the boiling water. Let bubble for 1 to 3 minutes, or until the broccoli is bright green. Immediately transfer the vegetables to the bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Let rest for several minutes, and then drain the water. Pat the vegetables dry.
- Slice the pea pods into 1/2” strips on the diagonal (discard the ends). Set the peas and broccoli aside.
Cook the soup:
- Heat the oil in a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium until the surface shimmers. Add the pancetta and leeks and saute until the fat starts to render. Add the shallots and garlic and stir until fragrant (just a minute or so).
- Pour in the broth, plus 1 cup of water and bring to a light boil over high heat.
- Add the tortellini, adjust heat down to maintain an active (but not aggressive) simmer, and cook according package directions (e.g, it usually takes about 5 minutes, and the tortelllini will rise to the top of the pot when done).
- Add the broccoli, pea pods, frozen sweet peas, spring onion slices, and spinach to the pot. Let cook at a light simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, then turn off the heat.
- Stir in the basil pesto.
- Taste the soup and add salt and pepper as desired.
Serve:
- Ladle the soup into bowls. Top with a spoonful of creme fraiche, plus a sprinkling of grated cheese chili pepper flakes, and the scallions.