Minestrone with Pesto

Not to put too fine a point on it I despise soupe au pistou and love minestrone. The Provençal dish is inferior in every way to the Italian and misses the point of the basil sauce completely by cooking it into the soup, when it should be stirred in at the table at the last moment to provide a unique burst of flavour.

There is no absolute recipe for minestrone, but it should contain beans and I like to include a soup pasta like ditali (slightly larger than the