Minestrone
A soffritto, whatever vegetables you have, and a parmesan rind in the pot. The pasta is cooked separately for a reason.
- Prep
- 25m
- Cook
- 45m
- Total
- 1h 10m
- Serves
- 6
- Effort
- Easy
Scale
Units
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 3 tbsp | Sweat slowly until soft, no colour 15m | Add and bring to a simmer 5m | Simmer 30 minutes with the rind in 30m The parmesan rind is the secret ingredient — glutamates, slowly released. | Stir the cooked pasta in just before serving 2m Pasta cooked in the soup keeps swelling and turns leftovers to porridge. | |
| 1 | |||||
| 2 | |||||
| 2 sticks | |||||
| 3 cloves | |||||
| 1 tin | |||||
| 1.5 l | |||||
| 1 tin | |||||
| 1 | |||||
| 1 | |||||
| 150 g | |||||
| 1/4 head | |||||
| 150 g | Boil separately until al dente 9m | ||||
| to serve | |||||
-
Sweat slowly until soft, no colour
15m- olive oil 3 tbsp
- onion 1
- carrots 2
- celery 2 sticks
- garlic 3 cloves
-
Add and bring to a simmer
5m- from 1 Sweat slowly until soft, no colour
- tinned tomatoes 1 tin
- vegetable stock 1.5 l
- tinned cannellini beans 1 tin
- potato 1
- parmesan rind 1
-
Simmer 30 minutes with the rind in
30m- from 2 Add and bring to a simmer
- green beans 150 g
- savoy cabbage 1/4 head
The parmesan rind is the secret ingredient — glutamates, slowly released.
-
Boil separately until al dente
9m- small pasta 150 g
-
Stir the cooked pasta in just before serving
2m- from 3 Simmer 30 minutes with the rind in
- from 4 Boil separately until al dente
- pesto or olive oil to serve
Pasta cooked in the soup keeps swelling and turns leftovers to porridge.
Order of operations
Everything in the pot is on a different clock. Soffritto vegetables want a slow start; potatoes and beans want half an hour; green vegetables want ten minutes; pasta wants to be nowhere near any of it. Staggering them is what keeps a minestrone from being uniformly soft.
Notes
- Keep parmesan rinds in the freezer. They cost nothing and do more for a soup than an extra stock cube.
- The bean liquid is worth adding — it is starchy and gives body.
- It thickens overnight. Loosen with stock, not water, when reheating.