Corsican Minestra

Name: Corsican Minestra
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: 1 bay leaf; ¾ cup dried white beans such cannellini, rinsed well, soaked overnight in plenty of cold water, and drained; 1 small onion, halved, plus 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped; 8 garlic cloves, peeled; 5 ounces fresh pork belly; 1 cup small shaped pasta, such as elbow or ditalini; 3 fresh thyme sprigs, preferably lemon thyme; 1½ tablespoons tomato paste, canned or homemade; ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil; 6 to 8 fresh basil sprigs, stemmed and shredded; 1 small fennel bulb, trimmed and coarsely chopped; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 medium red potatoes, peeled and halved; 4 medium carrots, sliced ½ inch thick; 1 medium zucchini, cut into ½-inch dice; 2 cups shredded dandelion greens or escarole; 4 large Swiss chard leaves, shredded; 8 ounces green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Complex

Appears in

Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking

By Paula Wolfert

Published 2009

About

You can think of this delicious mix of beans, pork belly, and vegetables flavored with basil as an early fall version of soupe au pistou. On Corsica, it’s always cooked in a tall clay pot on top of the stove, and locally the pistou is called pestu.

Ingredients

5 ounces fresh pork belly
¾ cup dried white beans such cannellini, rinsed well, soaked overnight in plenty of cold water

Europe
France
Corsica
Starter
Side dish
Mediterranean
Soup

Method

In a medium conventional saucepan of boiling water, blanch the pork belly for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse. As soon as the pork belly is cool enough to handle, cut it into 1-inch chunks.
Put the white beans, pork belly, halved onion, 4</