I’m working late on a two-day week (yes, if you use a couple of days of PTO to plug the gap between a national holiday on a Wednesday and the weekend, you can make a nifty little two-day work week for yourself) waiting on a virtual machine to finish converting, so I thought I’d post a few things while killing time.
This weekend was stinking hot. Too hot to really stomach running, too hot to really consider biking, and because I don’t have much of a base tan this year, hitting the crowded beaches or the crowded pool just didn’t sound like fun. Instead, I decided to do a few things I’m pretty good at instead: cook and shop.
First, the shopping. I hit up Sam’s Club and restocked. Frozen corn, frozen chicken thighs, frozen shrimp, scallops, and sausages. I don’t have room any more in my freezer for ice now. This could be problematic.
After that, I decided to tackle a small Basil problem I’ve been having lately, namely, having entirely too much of it. The two Basil plants growing on the deck have gotten much bigger than I thought they would, so I opted to make a batch of classic marinara, since that calls for 20 Basil leaves. And a ton of garlic.
Having done that, I set in to make soup. Yes, it was 90 degrees outside, but this is Farmer’s Market Minestrone (my term for the classic minestrone recipe found in Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking) and you don’t make it in the winter. That’s a time for bean and bacon soup and chili and scalloped potatoes.
Anyways, I sat and texted a half dozen pictures of this process to my friend that day and figured if I had the pics I might as well post the recipe. A forewarning: this is a recipe that’s pretty heavy on prep time. Expect to spend about an hour or so standing around the stove doing vegetable additions, and if you lack a sous chef, you’ll spend additional time prior prepping vegetables. Do yourself a favor and invite somebody over, open a bottle of wine, and let them play with the knives while you stir.
Here’s what you’ll need (approximately):
2 C zucchini, diced
3 Tbs butter
1/2 C Olive oil
1 C onion, diced (about 1 onion)
1 C carrots, diced (about 3 decent sized carrots)
1 C celery, diced (about 3 celery heart stalks)
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 lb green beans, diced
1/2 head of cabbage, chopped
2 C tomatoes (see below)
6 C beef broth
1 can Cannelini beans
1 lb mini pasta shells
1/3 C shredded Parmesan cheese
Begin by soaking the zucchini. The cook book says 20 minutes…by the time you get to it that’ll be around the right amount of time.
Next, chop the onion and saute it in a large stock pot with the oil and butter over medium heat.
After the onion has turned golden, add the carrots and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After the onions, add the celery and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Next, add the potatoes, and again, give it another 3-5 minutes or so.
After the potatoes, add the green beans and give it another 3-5 minutes. If you haven’t done so already, drain the zucchini water and dice those.
Add the zucchini and give those a good 4-6 minutes to blend with the rest of the veggies.
Two final ingredients left (for now). Fortunately, these can be added at roughly the same time. First, the tomatoes:
…and then the broth. I put enough to cover the veggies in, about 5 cups or so. My beef broth is beef soup base dissolved in boiling water, and the measurements are less than precise.
Put a lid on your Minestrone, reduce the heat, and let it cook for the next two and a half hours. Read a book, sit by the pool, play some Halo, or perhaps pay a little attention to your cat, who may or may not have been pouting 10 feet away this entire time.
Around the two and a half hour mark, add the Cannelini beans (don’t drain them).
After about 20 minutes, add the shells (optional) and give them a good stir. After about 10 minutes they’ll be good and cooked and will soak up most of whatever broth is left. I tend to add a little more broth at this point to account for the absorption.
When the final 10 minutes have passed, stir in the Parmesan cheese.
Serve in a large, shallow bowl and enjoy. Garnish with additional Parmesan cheese if desired.
A note on the noodles: I like noodles with my Minestrone; they tend to give it some body that just isn’t there with all the veggies. They will soak up any remaining liquid you put in the pot from this point forward, so prepare for your soup to adopt a stew-like consistency (or thicker) by the next day. You could add more broth, but the noodles will just soak it up. If you’re tackling this entire pot yourself and want some liquid in your soup, either add it while microwaving leftovers or keep the pasta separate from the soup and combine them immediately before serving.
Also, a note on the tomatoes: this is another one of those recipes where I thaw out a package of frozen Roma tomatoes that my family blanches, cooks down, and freezes every year. There’s probably around 2 cups of tomatoes in there. If I had to recommend a decent substitute for those, I’d suggest whole canned tomatoes, shredded or otherwise broken up.
Finally, I’m not real sure how well this soup freezes. I’ve never tried it. I have, in moments of desperation while trying to unload leftovers, taken it to a friend’s house and unleashed his four kids on it. That seemed to do the trick (although even they could not polish the whole thing off).
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