Tortellini Primavera

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Fresh, colorful, and full of flavor! Ravioli Primavera combines tender cheese ravioli with crisp seasonal vegetables in a light, delicious sauce for an easy meal that’s as colorful as it is satisfying.

I’ve been going through some of my older cookbooks and trying to find recipes that are easy to make and at least semi-healthy.   I need more go to dinners for when the school year starts up again. 

While I love a good pasta dish, they can often be heavy and almost too filling so I was looking for lighter versions of my favorites. A new favorite of mine is Gnocchi with Corn and Mushrooms because I can use fresh veggies in the summertime.  Baked Lemon Pasta is a lighter and brighter pasta dish that is great for warmer months. While not super healthy I do really like the amount of vegetables in Roasted Vegetable Mac N Cheese. 

When looking through my Taste of Home Cookbook I saw a recipe for tortellini primavera.  I had made it years before and really enjoyed the lighter sauce and the vegetables in the dish.  However, I only had small ravioli in the refrigerator so I went with those instead.

Can I use other shapes of pasta?

Since ravioli is a stuffed pasta I think the best substitution for this dish would be tortellini, which is the way the original recipe is written, you could also use penne, bowties, or rotini. 

What does “primavera” mean?

Primavera translates to spring.  In cooking, primavera refers to a dish made with fresh spring vegetables, often tossed with pasta in a light sauce. While the name is Italian, the actual dish was created in North America in the 1970’s. 

I didn’t want to go to the store to buy vegetables so I just used what I had at home.  I ended up using bell peppers, carrots, red onions, broccoli, and zucchini.  It was the perfect combination of colors, textures, and flavors. 

This meal is made on the stove top and after chopping all the vegetables it comes together pretty quickly.  The vegetables are sauteed while the ravioli is boiled in another pot.   

The sauce is simply made from chicken broth, white wine, butter, and a few spices.   It’s light and simple which I think works well with the vegetables. 

Ingredients:

• ravioli (or you can use tortellini)
• olive oil
• garlic cloves
• onion (you can use sweet onion or red onion)
• zucchini
• yellow squash
• broccoli
• bell peppers (I like using a variety of colors)
• carrots
• chicken broth
• white wine
• salted butter
• Parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper

After making the vegetables, sauce, and ravioli you can divide the ravioli between your bowls.  Spoon the vegetables in the sauce on top of the ravioli. 

Can I add other vegetables?

If you can saute it, you can add it.   Vegetables like mushrooms, asparagus, peas, eggplant, or even corn would work in this dish. 

At this point you can simply sprinkle the dish with Parmesan cheese and some Italian seasonings and call it a day.  You can also top the ravioli with a spoonful of marinara sauce but don’t over do it as the marinara sauce it more of an accent than a full on sauce in this recipe.  

We loved this dish.  The ravioli are tender and have a bit of flavor from the cheese.  The vegetables have a light and lovely butter and wine sauce on top of them.  Then the Parmesan cheese on top adds a bit of saltiness to the pasta. 

I also like how colorful this meal is.   Using different colored vegetables really helps to increase the visual appeal of this pasta. 

How do I store Pasta Primavera?

I tend to store the ravioli in one air tight container and the vegetables and sauce in another then place in the the refrigerator.  This is because the vegetables and sauce don’t take too long to reheat while the pasta may take a bit longer and I don’t like the vegetables to get mushy.