Minestrone
Italian Mixed Vegetable Soup
There is no single recipe for minestrone and there is not meant to be. It is a way of using what the season offers: several vegetables cut to the same size, covered with water and cooked slowly until they give up their sweetness. This is a winter version.
The Italian recipe read uses potato, carrot, squash, broccoli, onion, celery and spinach with beans and peas, covers them with water and a little passata by a finger's width and simmers gently for about an hour. It contains no pasta or rice and is served with fried croutons.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve
- 1 onion, chopped
- 100 g celery, sliced
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 200 g potatoes, peeled and diced
- 200 g butternut squash, peeled and diced
- 200 g broccoli, in small florets
- 100 ml tomato passata
- About 1.2 litres water
- 150 g cooked borlotti or cannellini beans (drained weight)
- 100 g peas, fresh or frozen
- 50 g spinach
- Fine sea salt
- Croutons fried in olive oil, to serve
Method
- Start the soup Heat the oil in a large saucepan and soften the onion, celery and carrots over a low heat for 8 minutes.
- Add vegetables and water Add the potatoes, squash, broccoli and passata. Pour in enough water to cover the vegetables by about 1 cm, add 1 tsp salt and bring to the boil.
- Simmer Lower the heat and simmer gently, partly covered, for 45 minutes. Add the beans and peas and cook for 10 minutes more. The vegetables should be very soft and the broth lightly thickened by the potato.
- Finish Stir in the spinach until it wilts, taste for salt and serve hot with croutons and a thread of olive oil.
Cut everything to roughly the same size so that it cooks evenly.
It is better the next day.