Minestrone

I think a minestrone is the perfect winter soup, it is actually a full meal, with a slice or two of organic farmers bread, it is like being in heaven.

There are many ways of doing a minestrone, when I do it for myself there is always a little bacon in it and I use a very light chicken stock to fill up the soup, but of course one can leave all meats away to make it a truly vegetarian soup, even good for a delicious vegan meal.

The making of the soup is really very easy, just cut all the vegetables together, saute in a little olive oil, add tomato paste, then puree and then some water, season, simmer, add spaghetti and potatoes towards the end of the cooking process as otherwise they would be overcooked and too soft, then at the end serve the soup with Parmesan and pesto....everybody will love it

Recipe
50 G Olive Oil
10 G Bacon Cubes
100 G Onion
150 G Leeks
100 G Carrots
100 G Celery
200 G Cabbage
200 G Potatoes
40 G Tomato Paste
100 G Tomato Concassé
50 G Rice
50 G Spaghetti
50 G Borlotti Beans

PESTATA
100 G Butter
10 G Garlic
1 Bunch Basil
50 G Parmesan

Method
Cut all the vegetables in small dices
Heat up olive oil and roast the bacon cubes in it
Add all the vegetables
Shallow-fry for a couple of minutes
Add tomato paste
Add about 3 l water (chicken stock) and boil for
15 min Add rice, cooked beans and broken spaghetti
Cook for another 15-20 min

Season and add pestata just before serving