Minestrone soup is an Italian staple, and roughly translates to “big soup”. There is no set recipe for minestrone, and it changes from season to season depending on what ingredients are available. You can use any number of vegetables, pasta or rice, meat or no meat, vegetable stock, bean stock, chicken stock…you get the idea.

Here is a good representative minestrone recipe. Feel free to adjust as necessary.

Ingredients

• Handful of chopped pancetta (about 1/3 lb), or regular bacon. (Pancetta is definitely preferred, though.)
• 1 cup white onion, diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups vegetable stock/broth
• Water as needed (up to 3 cups or so, 1 cup at a time)
• 1 box crushed or chopped tomatoes
• 1 can of cannellini beans (or other beans such as white pinto beans, navy beans, etc.)
• 1 can of garbanzo beans
• 1 small zucchini, diced (I like to cut it in half the long way, then slice to make half-moons)
• 1-2 cups cabbage, shredded
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 tsp Italian herbs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 bunch rainbow chard, thoroughly rinsed, rough chopped
• 1-2 cups baby spinach
• 3/4 cup ditalini pasta (very small tubes), or similar
• Fresh ground pepper to taste
• Olive oil
• Parmesan cheese

Preparation

Saute pancetta over medium heat and a little olive oil (about 1/2 Tbsp) just until is starts to brown, but doesn’t get too brown, about 3-5 minutes. Add onion, celery, and carrots. Saute until the onions just start to turn translucent, about 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic, stir, cook for about a minute.

Add the stock and tomatoes. Bring it up to a simmer. Add cabbage, zucchini, red pepper flakes, Italian herbs, salt. Stir. Reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for 15 minutes, then add the beans and simmer for an additional 30 minutes. Add water as necessary if it’s getting too thick, 1 cup at a time. (If using a lot of vegetables, you may need to add up to 3 cups or so total.)

Add chard and spinach, stir. Don’t worry, it’ll cook down/wilt fairly quickly. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Add freshly ground black pepper. Taste, then adjust as necessary.

Add pasta, increase heat to medium high. Cook for 15 minutes.

Top with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and parmesan cheese.