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Here are a trio of soups “au pistou.” Vegetable soup with a swirl of pesto or “pistou,” as it’s called in local dialect, is a Provençal classic. The many variations usually include both dried and fresh beans, tiny pasta, root vegetables, and whatever other fresh vegetables are available. It’s a quick-cooked soup—all the vegetables stay bright and fresh-tasting—and you stir a spoonful of pesto into your own bowl at the table. The aroma released is fantastic; it’s a heady experience. What follows is a traditional French version, then one based on Asian ingredients and one built from Mexican ingredients. Each soup uses a complementary pesto. I hope you’ll try making them. But even just by reading them, you’ll see something about the versatility of pesto; and together, they demonstrate nicely how easy it is to invent your own soup.