What is Minestrone? It’s said to be a soup comprised of the things you have on hand; maybe vegetables, meat, broth, beans or pasta. In Italian, minestrone, roughly translated, means the big soup. The kind of minestrone I like, is simmered for long periods of time, made with love and flavor that’s suited to my own pallet, which tends to include what I’ve recently bought at the market. I like perfectly plump white beans that have been simmered with onions, carrots, bay leaves and a slight heat from some red chili flake with tons of vegetables, cooked for different lengths of time to very textures.
I also love tomatoes in my minestrone. They bring richness, sweetness and acid, to a sometimes watery sea of vegetables. I used to make about five 22 quart containers of minestrone every week for the restaurant I used to work in, but this is not that minestrone. This is a combination of the flavors I had on hand, spices I love and flavors I adore, with an inspiration and a memory of the essence of what we used to create.
Very seldom do I keep to my old recipes, but I often try to escape new light into old favorites and this is just that. I won’t be able to tell you just how to make it, because there is no certain way to tell this particular tale in perfect soups, but know years of minestrone down the road, you’ll find the exact recipe you’re looking for and it probably won’t be written down. As you know, most of my recipes are ideas and schemes I’ve put together on the fly. I hope during these fall festivities you find yourself with a delicious bowl of hearty soup.
Ingredients I used:
Cabbage
Spinach
Carrots
Brown onion
Garlic, mashed
Oregano
Basil
Chives
Diced tomatoes
Broccoli
Zucchini
Slow cooked Fresh white northern beans
Bay leaf
Red pepper flake
Black pepper
Salt
Garlic powder
Coriander
Olive oil
Finishing with best olive oil you can get your hands on
Water
Tips and Tricks
Always cook root vegetables first, because they need the longest times to break down and develop flavor.
Soft vegetables and herbs can be placed in last minute, to maximize flavor and texture retention.
If using canned tomatoes, develop flavor by cooking them for a longer period of time with root vegetables.
Beans are never cooked with salt, because they have the tendency to lose their shape and won’t absorb water well. Cook beans aside soup base and add seasoned beans to vegetables at ¾ the way through and simmer together to increase flavor in soup.
Taste your soup throughout the process.
And don’t forget, it will taste better tomorrow.
Cheers
-Unrivaledkitch
