Slow Cooker Tomato and Tortellini Soup

Perfect comfort food in a bowl!

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Slow Cooker Tomato and Tortellini Soup is simple, hearty and delicious!

Slow Cooker Tomato and Tortellini Soup - A Family Feast

On the weekends, it’s not uncommon to find my husband Jack making soup!  He will start the day off by filling up a big pot with all of the ingredients to make a fantastic stock (like this one, or this or this) and the house is full of wonderful smells for hours while it cooks!

But lately, we’ve been very busy on the weekend with family and friends visiting, as well as activities with our seven-year-old!  So staying home while a pot of stock cooks down on the stove for hours hasn’t been possible.

And that’s where recipes like this Slow Cooker Tomato and Tortellini Soup come in!  This is a simple and creamy soup full of tomatoes and other vegetables – and it gets wonderful flavor from adding a few leftover Parmesan cheese rinds as the soup cooks in the slow cooker!  (Helpful hint: Anytime you use up a wedge of Parmesan cheese – save that rind in the freezer so you can add it later to soups and sauces!)

Slow Cooker Tomato and Tortellini Soup - A Family Feast

You’ll quickly sauté some diced vegetables in a skillet at the beginning of this recipe along with some tomato paste which serves as a thickener, then the soup is cooked the rest of the way using the slow cooker.  The base of this soup is fantastic on its own – but we like to add frozen cheese tortellini as well as fresh baby spinach just before serving to make this a complete and delicious meal!

Scroll down below to watch a video that shows how we make this delicious soup!

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Slow Cooker Tomato and Tortellini Soup

Slow Cooker Tomato and Tortellini Soup - A Family Feast
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Slow Cooker Tomato and Tortellini Soup is simple, hearty and delicious! Perfect comfort food in a bowl!

  • Author: A Family Feast
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 4 hours 10 mins
  • Total Time: 4 hours 25 minutes
  • Yield: 10 servings 1x
  • Category: soup
  • Method: slow cooker
  • Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 quart vegetable stock
  • 2 28–ounce cans ground peeled tomatoes (we like Pastene or Cento)
  • A few Parmesan cheese rinds, optional (will be removed after cooking)
  • 1 large bay leaf (will be removed after cooking)
  • 3/4 cup fresh basil roughly cut
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme (or 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme)
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup diced celery
  • 1 cup diced onion
  • 1 1/2 cups diced carrots
  • 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • Pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
  • 4 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 3/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoons butter (to smooth out the acidity, but optional)
  • 12-ounce package of frozen cheese-filled tortellini
  • 8 ounces baby spinach or fresh spinach, stems removed and chopped (or frozen may be used if fresh is not available)

Instructions

  1. In a four quart slow cooker, place stock, tomatoes, cheese rinds, bay leaf, basil and thyme. Turn your slow cooker on, setting the timer on high for four hours or low for six hours, and cover the mixture (this will allow your slow cooker to start heating up).
  2. While the slow cooker starts to heat up, in a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add celery, onions and carrots and cook for three to four minutes until almost soft. Add garlic, salt, pepper, paprika and pepper flakes and cook for one more minute. Add tomato paste and cook for about two minutes (being careful not to burn), then add wine to deglaze the skillet. Pour this mixture into slow cooker and stir to mix. Cover again and allow to cook for four to six hours.
  3. After the cooking time is up, remove cheese rinds and bay leaf and discard. With an immersion blender puree mixture until very smooth. Add Romano cheese, cream and butter and stir with a spoon to combine. Taste and add more salt and pepper only if needed.
  4. Turn the slow cooker to high (if it isn’t already), then add frozen tortellini. Cook until they are fully cooked (approximately 10 minutes), then add spinach. Continue cooking just until spinach has wilted into the soup (only a minute or two). If soup is too thick, dilute with more cream or more vegetable stock.

Notes

Before you begin, you will need a four quart or larger slow cooker. If you have a smaller slow cooker, cut the recipe in half. Secondly, the soup will be pureed at the end, so the dice size of the vegetables in this recipe really doesn’t matter. Lastly, a simple trick is to freeze cheese rinds as you finish a wedge of Parmesan and then use in soups that call for Parmesan. If you don’t have any, you may want to add some grated Parmesan at the end.

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Last updated: February 13, 2026

Martha is part of the husband-wife team that creates A Family Feast. She loves to cook and entertain for family and friends, and she believes that serving a great meal is one of the best ways to show someone that you care. Martha is a self-taught home cook, who loves to read cookbooks and try new recipes. After a decades-long career in business and online marketing, she now runs A Family Feast full-time. Her specialties are baking, desserts, vegetables and pasta dishes.

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33 Comments

  1. Absolutely amazing!!! My husband and I have been looking for a recipe to mimic this amazing tomato basil soup we had at a restaurant once, and this is the closest we have come yet! But the parmesan cheese and tortellini make it even better and oh so filling! Thanks for sharing!!!

    Reply

  2. You might want to reword this from “Pour this mixture into slow cooker along with the other ingredients and stir to mix.”

    to

    “Pour this mixture into slow cooker along with the other ingredients (except for the spinach and tortellini) and stir to mix.”

    Reply

      1. Actually shouldn’t it just read “pour ingredients into slow cooker” because the cheese, cream and butter aren’t added until later either? Have in crockpot now!

        Reply

  3. LOVE THIS SOUP!!! One of the best things I’ve ever made. Just had leftover today and had to write a comment. Going to try a bunch more of your recipes too! Also…I’m Martha and I’m a runner too. 🙂

    Reply

  4. I love a good hearty soup … thank you for sharing! It’s raining today … perfect soup weather, yum 🙂

    Reply

  5. I am definitely a fan of slow-cooker meals for the weeknight. I hope to try this or a version of it sometime! It sounds delicious.

    Reply

  8. I like those bowls too-love pottery! We have lots of pottery here in NC with our red clay.

    All of the goodness that goes into this soup sounds delicious! I will definitely be saving my rinds from now on. This is a good soup to make with my new immersion blender, too.

    Reply

      1. Martha, my husband and I were from Ipswich and have some pottery from there as well. Miss those fryed clams and Riverview Pizza. Don’t miss the cold though.
        Going to try this soup. Looks fantastic.

        Reply