Name: Vegetable Soup (Minestrone)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 115 g (4 oz) tubettini pasta, fregola (a type of small-grained couscous from Sardinia), or rice; 1.7 litres (3 pints) water; a total of 1.5 kg (3 lb 5 oz) vegetables, made up of any or all of the following: carrots, celery, courgettes, cauliflower, potatoes, fresh peas, beetroot, garlic, leeks, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, marrow; salt and pepper to taste; 4 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan; 1 × 400 g (14 oz) can borlotti beans, drained and rinsed (if you can find fresh, so much the better); 2 small tomatoes, skinned and chopped; 8 tbsp olive oil; a handful of fresh basil leaves; 1 small onion, chopped; a good 250 g (9 oz) prosciutto scraps

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

An Invitation to Italian Cooking

By Antonio Carluccio

Published 1986

About

‘The name of this famous soup derives from “minestra”, meaning “soup”. (In many parts of Italy minestra means “green”) It is found all over the country, and all the regions have their own variations, suffixed alla milanese, alla genovese, alla piemontese etc.’

Ingredients

8 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
a good 250 g

Method

Normally the soup is prepared with leftover vegetables, so to detail precise ingredients seems a little dictatorial to me! The listing should give you an idea. What is important, though, is to use some Parma ham, the flavour of which is essential to the success of any minestrone. You can ask for bits and pieces of prosciutto from your Italian grocer or delicatessen: for example, the skin, the p