Minestrone Recipe

Minestrone is a thick soup made with vegetables, and often containing pasta, rice, or both. There are a few major variations to this including meatless Minestrone, and using either chicken stock or vegetable stock. This is how I make it.

You can add any of your other favorite vegetables. Good choices are Broccoli, Squash (especially Zucchini), thinly sliced Cabbage, Green Beans, or Peas. Some recipes call for Potatoes. What a great chance to clean out your refrigerator!

Ingredients

• 450 grams (1 lb) Beef (optional). Many Minestrone recipes don't have meat. You don't need an especially high-grade cut here since the pieces are small.
• 170 grams (1 1/2 cups) Onion (Yellow or White). About 1 medium Onion.
• 320 grams (2 1/2 cups) Carrot, peeled and sliced or diced. About 2 large Carrots.
• 140 grams (1 1/2 cups) Celery. About 1 large stalk.
• 22 grams (4 cloves) Fresh Garlic, minced or pressed.
• 240 grams (1 can) Canned Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed. Other types such as Black Beans or Garbanzo Beans can also be used.
• 800 grams (2 cans) Canned Whole Tomatoes, undrained. 'Chopped' are fine, but we like the chunks of Tomato.
• 140 grams (1 cup) Small Pasta such as elbows or shells, optional.
• 60 ml (4 tbsp) Olive Oil, divided. Half Olive Oil and half Butter works, too.
• 5.69 grams (1 tsp) Salt.
• 0.58 grams (1/4 tsp) Black Pepper, fresh ground.
• 1.01 grams (1 tsp) Oregano (dried type). Any combination of about 2 tsp of these three spices is fine. Around my household people are happy with just Oregano.
• 0.46 grams (1/2 tsp) Thyme (dried, whole type).
• 1 grams (1/2 tsp) Basil (dried leaves).
• 0.4 grams (2 leaves) Laurel (Bay Leaf)
• 1,420 ml (6 cups) Beef Broth or Beef Bouillon. For Bouillon use 1 cube or 1 teaspoon of powder per cup of water.
• 10 ml (2 tsp) Lemon Juice.
• Parmesan Cheese, grated, for optional garnish.

Preparation

1. Roughly cut the Onion, Carrots, and Celery, finely chop the Garlic, and cut the Beef into bite-size pieces.
2. In a 6 liter / 6 quart pot, heat 3/4 of the Olive Oil.
3. Sauté the Onions, Carrots, and Celery and a pinch of Salt over medium heat until the Onions are translucent, about 8 minutes. After about 7 minutes, add the Garlic so it is sautéed for 1 minute.
4. If you're including Beef, add this and continue cooking until the beef is brown on all sides. Of course your can brown the meat in parallel in a separate pan to speed things up.
5. Add the Beef Stock or Beef Bouillon, Tomatoes, and Herbs (Oregano, Thyme, Basil, Laurel). Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer, partially covered for 15 minutes.
6. Add the Beans and optional Pasta. Continue simmering, uncovered, for 20 minutes or until your Other Vegetables are tender. Keep reading below.
7. If adding Pasta, add it about 10 minutes into this step so it will also be cooked just right by the end of the 20 minutes. Calculate this timing depending on the specific Pasta instructions.
8. Add the Lemon Juice and remaining 1/4 of the Olive Oil.
9. Add additional Salt and Black Pepper to taste.
10. Remove the Laurel.

Serving Suggestions

Storage

References