MINESTRONE

A hearty Italian soup, minestrone is great for lunch or as a starter for a meal. Learn how to whip up a bowl of homemade minestrone. To Italians, minestrone means "big soup." In other words, it's a soup with lots of different things in it, especially pasta, beans, and vegetables.





Minestrone Ingredients
To make minestrone, you'll need:
•2 16-ounce cans of navy beans
•32 ounces chicken broth
•4 carrots, chopped
•2 medium potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
•1 28-ounce can of whole peeled or chopped tomatoes
•1 large onion, sliced thinly
•5 cloves of garlic, chopped
•1 stalk of celery, sliced thin
•1 zucchini, sliced into half moons
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•1/4 teaspoon black pepper
•1/2 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
•1 cup broken-up thin spaghetti
•basil pesto or Parmesan cheese
Saute the Vegetables
The first step is to make the foundation for your soup. For most soups, that's onion, garlic, and celery, and that's what it is for minestrone. So heat up olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, and add the onion, garlic, and celery.

Cook these until the onion becomes slightly translucent. At this point, you can add your carrots and saute for about five minutes.
Combine the Ingredients
From here, it's really quite simple. You just add the rest of the ingredients to the pot. Add your stock, tomatoes, beans, potatoes, zucchini, salt and pepper, Herbes de Provence, and pasta. Incidentally, this is a great way to use up the leftover pasta you've got in your cupboard.

Now it just needs to simmer slowly for a couple of hours so all the flavors can combine.
Serve the Minestrone
When it's ready, serve in a bowl and top with a dollop of basil pesto or a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese - or both. And there's your minestrone, a delicious homemade soup.