Tortellini Minestrone (2024)

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Every year I look forward to this moment when two of my favorite seasons — the end of summer vegetable season+ the beginning of autumnsoup season — deliciously collide. That means it’stime for all of my favorite veggie soups!

And of course, minestrone is a must. ♥

This soup has been one of my comfort foods ever since I was a young pup. It was always served as an appetizer at the neighborhood Italian restaurant my family used to frequent. And even back in my ultra-picky-eating days when I was that girl who ordered a piping hot bowl of plain spaghetti (<– like, until high school), I strangely used to love the little bowl of vegetable minestrone that everyone was served as an appetizer. Sure, I occasionally picked out a green beanor two. But my mom was always amazedwhen the rest of that bowl — chock full of veggies, in a seasoned Italian broth — would disappear in a few minutes. Maybe it all just felt like eatingsoup, less than eating my veggies. But whatever the reason, mom loved it, and I sure loved it. And still do!

So this past weekend as I was surveying the fridge that was overflowing with tons of fresh veggies from my summer CSA, and asa cooler breeze was blowing in through the windows for the Labor Day weekend ahead, Iknew in an instant what I wanted to make. Although instead of adding in a handful of regular pasta to the soup, I decided totoss in a bag of cheesy tortellini and see how that tasted. And I’m so glad I did.

This tortellini minestroneabsolutely hit thespot.

If you’ve never made homemade minestrone before, it’s really quite simple.

Just saute some basic onions, carrots, celery and garlic together until soft. Then add in a bunch of tomatoes (I love fire-roasted) and tomato paste and stock to make a basic tomato broth. And then add in whatever other fresh veggies and beans sound good to you! I happened to have a ridiculous amount of summer squash in the fridge, so I went with that, along with a can of kidney beans (the classic choice I associate with minestrone!).

Then, in lieu oftossing in some macaroni at the end of the recipe, I decided to add in a few handfuls of spinach and a fresh bag of cheesy tortellini that I had in the fridge. You can use any kind of tortellini you’d like here, but I would wholeheartedly recommend going that route so that you get that nice,warm, soft, cheesy goodness added to your soup. (Did I mention this is comfort food?!) ;)

Then just serve it up, and sprinkle on some Parmesan or something as a garnish if you’d like (<– I happened to be out that day!). And this delicious, hearty, warm, comforting bowl of soup will be yours to enjoy.

I love this season!