Minestrone: Italian vegetable soup with beans and pasta, thick enough for dinner
An Italian soup of vegetables cut into even dice, built on a soffritto: onion, carrot and celery sweated in olive oil for a quarter of an hour without browning. That is what gives the depth stock alone cannot. Then passata, the firm vegetables, and at the end cabbage, courgette, white beans and a handful of pasta cooked straight in the soup. Thick, filling, better on the second day.
Your own work in that: 42 min.
- Chopping 15 min
- Soffritto 15 min
- Simmering 30 min
- Pasta 12 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneCut everything into even dice
Cut the onion, carrot, celery, potatoes and courgette into 1 cm dice. Cut the green beans into 3 cm lengths and shred the cabbage finely. Keep the courgette and cabbage aside: they go into the pot later than the rest.
Ingredients: 4 tbsp olive oil · 1 pcs onion · 2 pcs carrots · 2 pcs celery stalks · 3 cloves garlic · 400 ml tomato passata · 300 g potatoes · 150 g green beans · 1 pcs courgette · 200 g white cabbage · 400 g canned white beans · 1800 ml vegetable stock · 1 pcs bay leaf · 1½ tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
TipEven dice is not about looks. Vegetables of the same size cook at the same rate, so none collapses before another softens. It is the only demanding part of this soup.
Centimetre dice, courgette and cabbage asideMake the soffritto
Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot. Add the onion, carrot and celery, season with a pinch of salt and sweat over low heat for 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes. The vegetables should soften and turn translucent but not brown. Add the garlic for the last minute.
TipSoffritto is the foundation of Italian soups and sauces: slow sweating in fat releases the sugars in the onion and carrot and builds a sweet base. Cut to five minutes it gives a dull soup you then try to rescue with a stock cube.
A quarter hour on low heat, no browningAdd the passata and cook it down
Pour in the passata and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring, until it darkens and thickens and the oil starts to separate on top. Only then add the stock, potatoes, green beans, bay leaf and the parmesan rind if you have one.
TipCooking the passata down before the stock goes in drives off the raw, sharp taste of tomato. Poured straight into the broth it makes a noticeably sourer soup.
Passata darkens, then the stockSimmer and add the vegetables in order
Simmer with the lid ajar for 20 minutes. Add the cabbage and courgette, cook 8 minutes, then the drained beans and cook 2 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper.
TipCanned beans are already cooked: added at the start they break down into mush and cloud the soup. Two minutes is enough to warm them and let them take on flavour.
Cabbage and courgette after twenty minutes, beans lastCook the pasta in the soup
Tip the pasta straight into the pot and cook one minute less than the packet says, stirring now and then so it doesn't catch on the bottom. The starch from the pasta lightly thickens the soup and gives it a proper dinner consistency.
Ingredients: 100 g small pasta · 60 g parmesan · ½ bunch fresh basil · 2 tbsp olive oil
TipIf you are making the soup for tomorrow, cook the pasta separately and add it to the bowl. Left in the pot overnight it swells, goes soft and soaks up much of the broth.
Pasta straight into the pot, a minute shortFinish with oil, parmesan and basil
Remove the bay leaf and the parmesan rind. Take the pot off the heat, pour in the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and stir it through. Ladle into bowls, scatter with grated parmesan and torn basil. Serve with bread. Keeps 3 days in the fridge.
Oil off the heat, parmesan and basil on top
Before you start
Winter minestrone
Instead of courgette and green beans: diced pumpkin, kale or savoy cabbage and a piece of leek. Same method and timings, different season.
With bacon
100 g diced bacon rendered before the soffritto, then sweat the vegetables in its fat. The meat version, more savoury.
Parmesan rinds
Don't throw parmesan rinds away, collect them in the freezer. Dropped into the pot a rind slowly releases umami and saltiness, a depth grated cheese alone cannot give.
