Minestrone soup

For Italians, lunch is the time they spend at the table with close people: family and friends. They eat slowly and traditionally make several changes to the dishes.

Soup minestrone - a classic dish of Italian cuisine, one of the most common. Ideally, it should be very thick and rich. It is made from vegetables, to which paste or rice is sometimes added.

About Minestrone

Do you think that if the soup is traditional, then there must be a definite recipe for its preparation? But that's not true. Minestrone - seasonal soup. In the recipe of this first dish, much depends on the imagination of the chef and the preferences of the inhabitants of different regions of Italy, so there are as many recipes as people prepare it.

Do not ask if you can add some vegetable to this soup, if you want - add, it's a matter of your taste. Italians are very fond of adding tomatoes to the minestrone soup. They, of course, can cook it without them. Then it is called "white". In general, when preparing this soup, there is only one main condition: there should be at least ten vegetables.

As a rule, in a traditional recipe, vegetables are cut and cooked until ready. Then half of them are ground in a blender, making a mash, which is then sent back to the soup minestrone.

What is most important in preparing this dish?

Italians have several main secrets of cooking.

The first is the broth, the most important component of the soup. It should be saturated, thick and fat. Usually Italians use vegetable, less often meat broth. Most often it is cooked from pancetta or ham on the bone with the addition of grape wine and spices.

Fry the vegetables slowly and gradually on low heat with olive oil. Most often, the Italians take onions, garlic, celery, fennel and carrots. They also use a pumpkin and a zucchini. Only slowly frying vegetables, you can prepare a fragrant rich soup minestrone.

The second is seasonality. For cooking dishes, Italians use only those vegetables that can currently be found in the local market.

Preparation of soup minestrone

Ingredients:

- potatoes - 1 pc.,

- carrots - 1 pc.,

- a stick of celery,

- Onion - 1 pc.,

- canned beans - one medium pot,

- A handful of pasta,

- two slices of ham,

- frozen peas - half a cup,

- olive oil - one tart. L.,

- Parmesan - one tart. L.,

- a liter of broth.

Instructions for cooking:

Very finely chop carrots, onions and celery. Zucchini peel, cut off the tips, cut into small cubes.

Bacon cut into thin strips. Lightly fry it. Add the onions, stirring constantly, fry for another four minutes until golden brown. Next, put celery and carrots, stir, continue to cook. After another five minutes, add the beans and zucchini. Stir, cook another four minutes.

Strain the tomatoes with boiling water, then gently peel, cut into 4 parts and remove the seeds. Finely chop the flesh. Add it to the pan with vegetables and bacon. If you want, you can pour the wine carefully. Thoroughly mix everything, bring to a boil, simmer on low heat without a lid for about 20 minutes.

In small cubes, cut the potatoes. Pour 2 liters of water into the pan. Put on the fire, season with salt, bring to a boil.

Dip the potatoes and pasta, cook until half cooked. Depending on the type of macaroni you use, it should take about 10 minutes.

Gently from the frying pan, place the vegetable mixture in a saucepan with pasta and potatoes. Salt to taste. Stir and leave over a low heat.

Pour broth and bring to a boil.

Add peas and beans and cook for another ten minutes.

For two or three minutes until ready, pour in the olive oil. Stir. Cover, remove from heat.

Italian soup minestrone is ready. Pour it on plates and sprinkle with cheese, ideally grated Parmesan. Serve with a pudgy toast. Bon Appetit!