Back Story To This Minestrone Recipe

I have eaten minestrone off and on through the years and NEVER liked it. But it is a much loved soup, it’s from Italy, and it involves beans. So, I should like it. I was talking about soups with my wife the other day and I’m came to the conclusion that all the minestrone I had ever had was thin, watery, and bland. And most of it was from cans. I realized what I needed to do was create Minestrone not from a can.

Of course, it’s obvious in retrospect. Thin, watery, bland, limp pasta and veggies, that just doesn’t seem like something an Italian grandma would actually make in her kitchen. So, I started researching and investigating and found out that Minestrone that is served in restaurants and most American kitchens really just doesn’t deserve the name. I found out that there are some key ingredients needed to make it authentic. And that technique is also important.

I started experimenting with what I had found out in my research and this recipe is the result.

Cooking The Soup (In Pictures)

Key Discoveries To Create Minestrone Not From A Can

• Beans – Canned kidney beans. No, no …. replace those with Cannellini that you cook yourself.
• Veggies – there should be LOTS of veggies in the soup. It should be hearty.
• Base – Make your own beef stock. The stock you buy in the store is not particularly flavorful or robust. If you are going to use store bought, then get Better than Bouillon or a bone broth.
• Secret ingredient I discovered – traditional Italian minestrone includes a rind or two from Parmesan wedges.
• Order of cooking – the order you cook in and when the ingredients are added to the pot are very important. Otherwise you end up with soft, squishy veggies, undercooked beans and pasta, etc.
• Cutting the ingredients – The veggies, pasta, and beans should all be just about the same size. As should any diced ham, beef, or other meats added to the soup. This gives a consistent mouth feel AND no one ingredient overpowers another.

You Can Make a Vegan Minestrone Easily

• Substitutions are key here
• Parmesan – replace with nutritional yeast powder
• Stock – use vegetable stock (you can improve mouth feel with some gelatin)
• More veggies, no meat
• And it’s really that easy

As far as the beans go, first …. no canned beans. Second …. good heirloom beans make a huge difference. I highly recommend using Steve Sando’s Marcella’s, which are a thin skinned cannellini grown from an Italian heirloom seed. They are named after Marcella Hazan. Third …. cook the beans separate from the soup. If you happen to have beans already prepared, just add them per the recipe. If not, follow my primer for cooking beans.

Cooking The Beans (In Pictures)

Minestrone Not From A Can!

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Recipe by Eric Course: Soups, MainCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Moderate

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

30

minutes

Calories

385

kcal

Total time

2

hours 

This is a recipe for home made minestrone not from a can. If you are looking for home made, hearty, robust, and flavorful minestrone, this is it. If you are cooking vegan or vegetarian, the notes in parentheses are the substitutions.

Ingredients

• 3 1/4 cup Cooked cannellini beans, such as Rancho Gordo Marcella’s. You can substitute 2 14 oz cans of beans, but why would you? Cook them using my Primer to Cooking Beans.

• 1 cup white wine – not too expensive, something from Italy like a Pinot Grigio

• 8 cups beef stock (substitute vegetable stock)

• 2 slices thick cut bacon, chopped roughly (substitute 1 tbsp olive oil)

• 2/3 medium onion, chopped

• 2 garlic cloves, minced/crushed

• 1 leek, white portion only, chopped

• 2/3 cup chopped carrot

• 2/3 cup chopped celery

• 1 1/2 cups chopped red potatoes

• 2/3 cup peas or green beans – fresh is ideal. Frozen if you don’t have fresh. Never use canned, they will be mushy

• 4 oz dry pasta – a smaller macaroni style is best (Barilla Elbows is a good choice, but a pasta with no eggs)

• 1 14 oz can diced tomatoes

• 2 rinds from parmesan wedges (8 tsp gelatin, if desired)

• 1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan. Use fresh grated, it makes a difference (1 cup nutritional yeast)

• 1 tsp sea salt

Method

• Soup base
• Add remaining two slices of bacon to a large soup pot (8 quarts is the right size), cook until rendered well and brown, but not crispy (skip this step)
• Reserve the bacon, chop up, add to the other bacon from the beans (heat olive oil)
• Cook onion, carrots, celery, leek in bacon fat (olive oil) until onion is translucent, about 10 minutes
• Add garlic, cook until aromatic, about 1 minute
• Add cup of wine, deglaze the pot
• Add tomatoes, beef stock (vegetable stock) and cheese rinds (gelatin, if desired)
• Cook at a simmer, lid partially open, for about 25 minutes until you have a hearty soup and the rinds are melted.
• Remove the remaining chunk of rind that won’t melt and discard
• Cook potatoes, meat, pasta, beans
• Add potatoes, beans
• Cook pasta in a separate pot until al dente, drain, keep warm but do NOT add to the soup
• If you will have meat in it, add that now too
• Chop all your reserved bacon to the same size as your potato dices and add to the pot (omit)
• Bring to a boil, reduce to a bare simmer and cook for about 15 minutes
• Check that beans are near done
• If they aren’t, go another 5 minutes, or so
• Add salt to taste
• Finishing the soup
• Add the peas or green beans and about a cup of Parmesan cheese (nutritional yeast)
• If you are doing other veggies, like zucchini or eggplant, this is the time to add them. Don’t do it earlier and end up with soft, blah stuff.
• Cook at a simmer for another 5-7 minutes
• Cheese should be melting and the peas should be heated through
• As you serve into a bowl, add a couple spoons of pasta

Notes

• If you want, you can add meat to your soup. Things like ground beef, diced ham, a bit of left over roast will all work fine. Make sure to cut it about the same size as the vegetables.
• Vegan/Vegetarian: Substitute olive oil for bacon, use vegetable stock, make sure that your pasta does not contain egg. Substitute nutritional yeast powder for parmesan cheese. You may wish to add some gelatin in place of the parmesan rind.