Name: Minestrone
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 12 baby green beans, cut into 1 cm (½ inch) long pieces; 2 tablespoons tomato paste (purée); 25 g (1 oz/½ cup) shredded silverbeet (Swiss chard) leaves and stalks; 1 tablespoon sea salt; 400 g (14 oz) can chopped tomatoes and their juices; 1 fresh bay leaf; 2 flat-leaf (Italian) parsley sprigs, leaves roughly chopped; freshly ground pepper; Parmesan or pesto, to serve; 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil; 1 large red onion, finely diced; 60 g (2¼ oz/¼ cup) finely diced smoky bacon or speck; 1 leek, white part only, washed and finely diced; 2 garlic cloves, crushed; 4 celery stalks, finely diced; 2 carrots, peeled and finely diced; 60 g (2¼ oz/⅓ cup) dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Food I Love

By Neil Perry

Published 2005

About

Minestrone is a homely, hearty mixture of vegetables with white beans, rice, pasta or barley. There is usually a mixture of starchy and leafy vegetables and either stock or water. Quite often pesto is added at the end, as it really heightens the flavour. I think when making this at home, it is easiest to make the soup with water and add flavour from either smoky bacon or speck. The soup cooks until all the vegetables are well done and I think that the water base allows the vegetables to tas