Adding pasta to Minestrone

There are so many different recipes for Minestrone. Some, like this recipe, use beans. Others replace the beans with pasta. Some use both.

If you are going to use pasta you can choose to cook the pasta in the soup. This will give the broth a thickness that comes from the starch in the pasta. If you are doing this then choose a small pasta shape such as ditalini or a soup pasta such as orzo.

If you prefer you can pre-cook pasta until al dente, drain, mix in a little olive oil and then spread out to cool on a tray. Add this when heating up the soup just to warm through.