Soups

In winter we have soup every night. It has always been our first course, to warm us up. Today our mother still serves soup as part of the evening meal even though many of her soups, like the minestrone, have everything in them–veggies, beans, pulses–so you don’t actually need much more to eat!

Most of these recipes came from our mom, who taught us to start a soup by sweating off onions and celery (there must always be celery!) before adding the rest of the ingredients. At chef’s school we learned the base should also include onion, celery and carrot but my mother’s method is so ingrained in me, so sometimes we add carrot but not always.