Minestrone Soup

Minestrone Soup: Step by Step

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1. Warm the olive oil in a large pot and sweat the onion, carrot and celery over low heat for 12 to 15 minutes until completely soft and sweet. This soffritto is the flavour base — rushing it costs you the whole dish.

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2. Add the garlic and tomato purée and cook for 2 minutes until the purée darkens to brick red.

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3. Add the crushed tomatoes, stock, salt and the Parmesan rind if using. Bring to a simmer.

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4. Add the potatoes and cook for 10 minutes, then the green beans and courgette for a further 8.

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5. Mash a quarter of the cannellini beans with a fork and stir them in along with the whole ones.

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6. Add the pasta and cook for the time on the packet, adding the cavolo nero for the last 4 minutes.

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7. Remove the rind, stir through the basil, and rest off the heat for 10 minutes before serving with a hard drizzle of good olive oil.

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Related guide: Ingredient substitutions.

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A Few Pointers

• Save your Parmesan rinds in the freezer. Each one adds a savoury depth that stock alone cannot.
• Cook the pasta separately if you plan on leftovers, or it will swell and drink the broth overnight.
• Swap in whatever is seasonal — this soup was invented to use up the garden.

Changing the Recipe

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Serve It With

A light Verdicchio or simply water · Grilled sourdough rubbed with garlic · Fresh fruit and a wedge of Pecorino

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Creamy Parmesan Polenta, Cauliflower Risotto, Ciabatta.

Keeping and Reheating

Refrigerate 4 days, freeze 3 months without the pasta. Thin with a splash of stock when reheating, as the beans continue to thicken it.

Minestrone Soup Nutrition Facts

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

Vegan when made without the parmesan rind. Dairy-free when made without the parmesan rind. Vegetarian when made with a hard cheese made without animal rennet in place of the parmesan.

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