Minestrone soup

lovely minestrone soup

Is this possible? Have I never blogged minestrone before? Unthinkable! Absurd! (to use one of the lines from the excellent musical The Fiddler on the roof). Well….in truth I don’t know why I have never done it until now as I LOVE minestrone and I often make it. I tend to make a huge batch of it, then either eat it for days on end or freeze some of it. To an Italian person minestrone will not sound all that exciting. After all it is pretty basic stuff . Still, we are here to share what we eat and, as I mentioned, minestrone is a welcome, frequent guest at my table. Plus my English friends will approve, I am sure. I know: summer is not exactly the right season to blog soups BUT , let’s face it, from what Candida has been saying, WHAT SUMMER? The weather in Italy has been very much minestrone weather so far, I’d say. Coming back to this queen of soups. The only minus point compared to other soups is that it is rather faffy to make as you have to neatly chop all your vegetables into bite size pieces  instead of chucking them  in the pot, boiling and liquidizing them. In other words, making minestrone is a labour of love: it takes time and patience. But you will be rewarded at the end. Trust me! Basically the more vegetables you put in the better. Always remember to include some potatoes and onions and some borlotti beans or similar, to give it body.

INGREDIENTS

A wide selection of chopped vegetables. (The more you put in, the better. I used: potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, leeks, carrots, courgettes, fennel, peas, celery, borlotti beans, tomatoes and green beans.)

Olive oil and a handful of fresh chopped basil leaves (or parsley)

Grated parmesan

METHOD

Cover your vegetables with vegetable stock and cook for approx. 25-30 minutes (until vegetables are nice and soft).

Drizzle with olive oil and add the chopped fresh basil leaves.

Top with grated parmesan and enjoy!

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