Italian Minestrone Soup

This Italian Minestrone soup recipe is simply comfort in a bowl! Celebrate Winter seasonal vegetables along with cupboard staples in this magical one-pot dish that is guaranteed to chase away the chill

Prep Time5

Cook Time50

Total Time55

Course: Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: cavolo nero, italian, Kale, Minestrone, Soup, Winter

Servings: People

Calories: 346kcal

Equipment

large hob to table casserole dish with a lid

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
4 slices streaky bacon
1 onion diced
1 carrot diced
2 sticks celery diced
2 cloves garlic crushed/grated
1 tbsp tomato puree
400 g tin chopped tomatoes
750 ml chicken stock or vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs of thyme
1 rind of parmesan optional see notes
400 g tin of cannellini beans
80 g small pasta
100 g cavolo nero or kale
Salt and pepper
Parmesan/pecorino to serve

Instructions

If you’re making this recipe vegetarian, skip to step 3. Finely chop the streaky bacon, I find it’s much easier to snip with scissors.
Add to the large-lidded casserole dish along with the olive oil. Fry on a high heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until starting to brown and released the fat.
While this is happening, finally dice the onion, carrot and celery. Once the bacon is cooked, add the chopped vegetables to the dish. If you’re making this vegetarian, you will do so with 1 tbsp of olive oil.
Cook over a medium high heat until the onion is softening but not colouring. This will take around 10 minutes.
Add in the garlic, stir for a minute, followed by the tomato puree for another minute.
Pour in the tin of tomatoes and then add in your hot chicken stock together with the bay leaf, thyme and the parmesan rind, bring to the boil and then cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove the central cores of the cavolo nero or kale and slice. Add the can of drained and rinsed cannellini beans along with the cavolo nero, then finally pour in the small pasta. Then stir gently. I prefer to keep the pasta just in the liquid, sitting on top of the leaves, as I find if it sinks to the bottom it’s likely to stick.
Cover the casserole with the lid, cook for the time that the pasta indicates (normally for small pasta around 7 minutes).
Serve in wide bowls alongside grated parmesan and crusty bread if you wish. Although this soup is certainly filling enough!

Notes

To make this dish vegetarian simply omit the bacon and use vegetable stock
I normally have a small sealed bag of parmesan rinds in the fridge ready to throw into a soup such as this. If you don’t, that’s not a problem. But next time you get to the end of your wedge of parmesan, think of keeping it to add further depths to your soups.
You can always think of replacing the cannellini beans with another bean – such as borlotti – or indeed a can of brown/green lentils.
Some people can find cavolo nero a little bitter. Personally I love the taste. But that is why the recipe calls for cavolo nero or kale. Kale will bring the dark green earthiness but will be slightly less bitter than cavolo nero.