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My recipe
Vegetable soup with pesto - Minestrone alla genovese
Introduction
Minestrone is a classical Italian soup with fresh vegetables. The choice of vegetables varies depending on the season and region - carrots, broccoli, cabbage, celery, beans, etc.
Minestrone Genovese is a typical recipe from Liguria, a region in Italy. This minestrone is very famous for its local touch – they serve it with basil pesto, pesto Genovese. As always, there are many versions of the recipe, beside “basic” vegetables you could meet recipe with aubergine, lettuce, rice instead of pasta, recipes using the broth.
- 150 g small-sized pasta (Brichetti)
- 2 potatoes
- 2 carrots
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 - 2 celery stalks
- 1 medium-seized onion
- 150 g green beans
- 150 g green peas
- 100 g cabbage (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts)
- 2 medium-sized zucchini
- 1 clove garlic
- 50 g Parmigiano (Grana Padano)
- 2 l broth (water)
- Pesto Genovese
- Olive oil, fresh basil leaves, chopped
- Dice all vegetables
- Put the potatoes and carrots to the stock, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 min
- Add the rest of the vegetables, salt, peppers and cook for 15 min
- Add Parmigiano, olive oil, cover with the lid and cook for 5 min
- Add pasta, leave to cook until ready, 8-10 min
- Serve with pesto, grated cheese and fresh basil leaves
Thoughts and Ideas
Many minestrone recipes are using dried haricot beans. I never use them, because dried beans require a lot of time for cooking. Typically, minestrone is cooked for a couple of hours. I don’t understand this method of cooking - after such a long simmering any vegetable will lose last vitamins and flavours. But, again, it’s my personal opinion. I also prefer to fry the vegetables quickly in the butter before they are added to the broth.
Italians are using special small pasta for minestrone, if you don’t have that one, you can use spaghetti, broken into smaller pieces. Also a Parmigiano rind is always added to minestrone while cooking.
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