Recipe
Minestrone with rice
Minestrone is the soup that wasn't invented so much as negotiated into existence over the course of a hundred generations of Italian households trying to use up every vegetable before it went bad. There is no single correct minestrone. There is only what is in the bottom drawer of your fridge, cut into small cubes, sweated in a bit of olive oil, topped up with water or stock, and simmered until everyone in the house has come around to admitting it smells good. If someone tries to tell you there is a canonical recipe, they are lying, or they are Ligurian, which is nearly the same thing.
Our family's version always used whatever was in season, a parmigiano rind scavenged from the fridge, and rice instead of pasta because our nonno's second wife came from the rice-growing flatlands around Pavia and refused to put ditalini in a soup come un napoletano. This is the version we still make. On a good day the pot gets carrots, celery, zucchini, a handful of spinach at the end, and a can of cannellini beans for bulk. On a great day it gets fresh borlotti beans still in the pod and a small piece of pancetta. On a sad, empty-fridge day it gets whatever is left standing, including, once, a half-wilted bag of rocket, three cold boiled potatoes, and an unlabelled jar of something green. It was still great.
Two notes from years of making this. One, the parmigiano rind is the difference between a good minestrone and a great one. Keep one in the freezer at all times, and drop it into any brothy thing you cook. Two, this is a dish that gets better for three days and then mysteriously goes flat on day four. Make a big pot on Sunday, eat it twice a day for 48 hours, and don't try to push it past Wednesday. Everything has limits, and minestrone's limit is about 72 hours from the first spoonful.
- Prep 15 min
- Cook 40 min
- Serves 2
- Cost €
Method
- 1
Warm the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, and celery with a pinch of salt. Cook until softened and starting to colour, stirring often.
10 min
- 2
Add the garlic, stir for 30 seconds.
1 min
- 3
Add the zucchini, potatoes, tomato passata, and parmigiano rind. Stir so everything gets coated.
2 min
- 4
Pour in the hot stock. Bring to a simmer, lid cracked open.
3 min
- 5
Simmer until the potatoes are tender but still holding their shape, stirring occasionally.
15 min
- 6
Add the cannellini beans. Simmer 5 more minutes.
5 min
- 7
Add the rice. Simmer until the rice is tender, stirring now and then so it doesn't stick.
15 min
- 8
Stir in the spinach and basil. Stir until the spinach wilts.
1 min
- 9
Fish out the parmigiano rind (scrape any melty bits back into the soup). Taste, adjust salt and pepper.
1 min
- 10
Serve in deep bowls with a generous shower of grated parmigiano, a crack of pepper, and a drizzle of raw olive oil.
1 min
Variations
The classic Ligurian minestrone finishes with a dollop of pesto stirred into each bowl, which transforms the soup and deserves trying at least once. For a meatier version, fry 60 g of diced pancetta with the soffritto. Any hardy vegetable can join: cavolo nero, chard, green beans, peas. Swap the rice for 100 g of small pasta like ditalini added in the last 10 minutes. Make a double batch; minestrone eats for three days.