Servings: 6-8
Source: from the Classic Italian Cookbook by Marcella Hazan)
VEGETABLE SOUP
A vegetable soup will tell you where you are in Italy almost as precisely as a map. There are the soups of the south, leaning heavily on tomato, garlic, and oil, sometimes containing pasta; there are those of the center, heavily fortified with beans; the soups of the north, with rice; those of the Riviera, with fresh herbs; and there are nearly as many variations in between as there are local cooks. In Romagna, very little is put into Minestrone beyond a variety of seasonal vegetables, whose separate characteristics give way and intermingle through very slow cooking in broth. The result is a soup of mellow, dense flavor that recalls no vegetable in particular but all of them at once.
It is not necessary to prepare all the vegetables ahead of time although you may do so if it suits you. The vegetables don’t go into the pot all at once, but in the sequence indicated, and while one vegetable is slowly cooking in oil and butter you can peel and cut another. I find this method more efficient and less tedious than preparing all the vegetables at one’time, and somehow it produces a better-tasting soup. In any event, cook each vegetable 2 or 3 minutes, at least, before adding the next.
Ingredients
1/2 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
I cup thinly sliced yellow onion
I cup diced carrots
I cup diced celery
2 cups peeled, diced potatoes
2 cups diced zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini) (see note below)
1 1/2 cups fresh white beans, if available, OR 1 1/2 CUPS canned cannellini beans or Great Northern beans OR 3/4 cup dried white beans, cooked as directed on page 78
1 cup diced green beans
3 cups shredded cabbage, preferably Savoy cabbage
6 cups Homemade Meat Broth (page 10) or 2 cups canned beef broth mixed with 4 cups water
The crust from a 1- or 2-pound piece of Parmesan cheese, carefully scraped clean (optional)
2/3 cup canned Italian tomatoes, with their juice
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Directions
Choose a stockpot large enough for all the ingredients. Put in the oil, butter, and sliced onion and cook over medium-low heat until the onion wilts and is pale gold in color but not browned. Add the diced carrots and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring once or twice. Repeat this procedure with the celery, potatoes, white beans (if you are using the fresh beans), zucchini, and green beans, cooking each one a few minutes and stirring. Then add the shredded cabbage and cook for about 6 minutes, giving the pot an occasional stir.
Add the broth, the cheese crust, the tomatoes and their juice, and a little bit of salt. (Go easy on the salt, especially if you are using canned broth. You can correct the seasoning later.) Cover and cook at a very slow boil for at least 3 hours. If necessary, you can stop the cooking at any time and resume it later on. (Minestrone must never be thin and watery, so cook until it is soupy thick. If you should find that the soup is becoming too thick, you can add another cup of homemade broth or water. Do not add more canned broth.)
Fifteen minutes before the soup is done, add the canned or cooked dry beans (if you are not using fresh ones). just before turning off the beat, remove the cheese crust, swirl in the grated cheese, then taste and correct for salt.
Note:
Before dicing the zucchini, scrub it thoroughly in cold water to remove all soil-and if still in doubt, peel it.
Minestrone, unlike most cooked vegetable dishes, is even better when warmed up the next day. It keeps up to a week in the refrigerator.
