My Memories of Minestrone
On a cold wintery day, few things are more comforting than curling up with a bowl of hot soup.
Minestrone (/ˌmɪnɪsˈtroʊni/; Italian: [mineˈstroːne]) or minestra, is a thick soup of Italian origin made with vegetables, often with the addition of pasta or rice, sometimes both. Common ingredients include beans, onions, celery, carrots, leaf vegetables, stock, parmesan cheese and tomatoes.
The word itself derives from the Latin verb minestrare which means ‘to administer’. This is because the head of the household was responsible for serving the minestra from a central bowl.
Minestrone is hearty, full of delicious, healthy Mediterranean ingredients that are not only nourishing but satisfying. It’s the perfect soup to make on cold days at either lunch or dinner, and ideal served with a little garlic bread, or a salad to start. Definitely nice with a glass of Italian red wine or a bold red Zinfandel.
After much Internet searching, there seems to be no one recipe for Minestrone. Since it is usually made out of whatever vegetables are at one's disposal and recipes were handed down from generation to generation, each family seems to have their own version. Minestrone can be vegetarian, contain meat (like little bits of pancetta), or contain an animal bone-based stock (such as chicken stock). Food author Angelo Pellegrini claimed that the base of minestrone is bean broth, and that borlotti beans (also called Roman beans) "are the beans to use for genuine minestrone". I think there’s some room for interpretation here. I usually use chicken broth (unless I’m out or hosting a vegetarian, then I use vegetable broth) and I use red kidney beans.
I have tried many Minestrone recipes over the years and yet seem to always come back to the one my mother made when I was a kid. It was from a Hunt’s Tomato Sauce recipe booklet from the 60’s, I think it was! Who knows how authentically Italian it really is, but when I started cooking for myself, I had to have that recipe. I loved soups even then, and remembered the Minestrone fondly. She showed me the Hunt’s pamphlet she still had, years later! I copied the recipe onto a 3x5 card to keep in my recipe box and it is still sitting there to this day. I use it consistently when I want a tried-and-true Minestrone to warm my bones.
This Hunt’s version has loads of flavor. Of course, it’s even better the day after you make it, when the broth and vegetables and beans have had a chance to get to know one another overnight.
If you don’t have a version of Minestone you can’t live without, start with this one, and remember that Minestrone is flexible. It’s made with whatever vegetables you have on hand so you can really experiment, if you wanted to, with the combo you like best. Chiefly, there is no right or wrong here. All that matters is that you make it and enjoy it! Here’s our recipe.
Minestrone
Ingredients:
1/2 cup olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
4 Tbsp. chopped parsley, Italian flat-leaf
1 can Hunt’s tomato paste
10-12 oz of broth: chicken or vegetable
9 cups water (sometimes I add more of the above broth and less water)
1 cup chopped green cabbage
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. ground sage (or a few leaves of fresh, to be removed later)
1 (14 oz) can red kidney beans, drained
1 zucchini, diced
1 cup green beans, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup elbow macaroni
Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Heat oil in a large pot. Add garlic, onion, celery, parsley. Cook till soft. Stir in tomato paste and brown it a little, then add the next 7 ingredients (through the sage). Mix well. Bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover, and simmer 1 hour. Add remaining ingredients except the cheese. Cook 10-15 minutes more until the macaroni is tender. Serve hot with cheese.
Buon appetito!
#minestronefromhunts #soupisgoodfood #warmyourbones
